CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



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Charles Duncan McIver 



Born September 27, 1860 
Died September 17, 1906 



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Write me as one that loves his fellow-men. ' 



MEMORIAL VOLUME 

Prepared in accordance with a resolution of the Board of Direc- 
tors of The North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College 
and under the direction of the following Committee of the Faculty : 

Wiujam C. Smith, 

Vioi,a Boddie, 

Mary Settle Sharpe. 



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"Happy he 
Who to his rest is borne, 
In sure and certain hope, 
Before the hand of age 
Hath chilled his faculties, 
Or sorrow reached him in his heart of hearts! 
Most happy if he leave in his good name 
A light for those who follow him, 
And in his works a living seed 
Of good, prolific still." 



PRESSES OF 

Jos. J. Stone & Company 

Printers and Binders 

Greensboro 
North Carolina 



CONTENTS 

For more complete table of contents see latter part of this volume. 



Page 

A Noble Career Ended. Press Accounts ... 7-15 
Eulogy by Hon. William Jennings Bryan. 17-27 

Laid to Rest. Press Accounts 30-32 

Funeral Sermon 33-42 

Press Tributes 43-126 

Memorials and Memorial Exercises 127-181 

Memorial Addresses 129-162 

Governor's Proclamation 163-164 

Resolutions 182-213 

Personal Tributes 214-257 

Biographical Sketch 258-281 



"The most important civil institution in the State is a public 
school. No man can really believe in a republican form Of government 
who does not base his political philosophy upon the intelligence and 
right training of all the people. * * * The chief factors of any 
civilization are its homes and its primary schools. Homes and primary 
schools are made by women rather than by men. No State which 
will once educate its mothers need have any fear about future 
illiteracy." * * * 

"Sometimes we think it is a pity that a good man who has learned 
to be of service to his fellows should be called out of the world. So 
sometimes we may think about an enterprising and useful generation; 
but, after all, the generations of men are but relays in civilization's 
march on its journey from savagery to the millennium. Each genera- 
tion owes it to the past and to the future that no previous worthy 
attainment or achievement, whether of thought or deed or vision, shall 
be lost. It is also under the highest obligation to make at least as 
much progress on the march as has been made by any generation 

that has gone before." 

CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER. 



A NOBLE CAREER SUDDENLY 

ENDED 



From Press Correspondence, oy Andrew Joyner 

The tour of William J. Bryan through North Caro- 
lina began yesterday afternoon (September 17, 1906) 
with the departure of his special train for Greensboro 
accompanied by a large party of prominent citizens. 
The trip to Greensboro started auspiciously, but was 
saddened just as the train left Durham by the death of 
Dr. Charles D. Mclver, the leading educator and most 
useful citizen of North Carolina. Beside a mechan- 
ical throb of the pulse as we laid him down there 
was no movement whatever of a muscle or a nerve, 
the calmness of death and its grand dignity of repose 
marking his features from the very first. It was apo- 
plexy, sure, swift and sudden, and he lay there until 
Greensboro was reached as if in a sweet and restful 
sleep. 

Not one on the rear car knew of what was passing, 
and that while they were enjoying the sweet converse 
of congenial thought, social or political, that the soul 
of the life of the crowd but a few moments before had 
taken its flight. "When the awful intelligence was com- 
municated, there was a scene never to be forgotten as 
weeping men rushed through the fast moving train 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



across the vestibule to the dead comrade's side, help- 
less, stunned, paralyzed with sorrow. Whatever may 
be Mr. Bryan's hold on himself, he lost it then. Like 
a lion he rushed through, less speedy friends exclaim- 
ing : ' ' It cannot be ! Oh, it cannot be ! " and reaching 
the bier, he knelt down and caressed the dead hands 
and was gently led away weeping. 

At Hillsboro a large crowd had assembled to hear 
Mr. Bryan, and this station was reached just as all 
had become acquainted with the sad event. Here tele- 
grams were sent, and standing in the rear of the train 
Governor Glenn, as Mr. Bryan stood there with bowed 
head, the object of every eye, told the people of the 
occurrence, and they stood silent and awed, uttering 
no sound as the train moved off. 

At Burlington there was an immense gathering and 
it had been arranged for Mr. Bryan to speak in a 
pavilion near by. Governor Glenn again imparted the 
sad news. The people seemed unable to comprehend. 
Soon they began to leave and crowd around the rear 
platform of the car. Standing there with head bared 
Mr. Bryan said : 

' ' I am sure that you will agree with me that this 
is not the time or occasion for a political speech or any 
other speech when I tell you that just after we left 
Durham, one of our party, Dr. Charles D. Mclver, 
suddenly died. He was the man who first invited me 
to North Carolina twelve years ago, and I have never 
been in your State since, but he was found on the 
reception committee and the first to greet and cheer 

8 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



me. And when I recently reached New York from 
abroad, Dr. Mclver was there to greet me and again 
to invite me to North Carolina. 

"His life, perhaps more than that of any man I 
know as well, illustrates the value of an ideal. He was 
an educated man whose sympathies were ever with the 
uneducated. He moved in and adorned the highest 
circles, yet snapped the golden chord in unselfishly 
lifting others up, and he devoted that life to bringing 
blessings to the poor and less favored than he. His 
death is a loss, a fearful loss to his country, his State, 
his city of Greensboro, to the glorious institution of 
learning which is now so suddenly become his endur- 
ing and sanctifying monument, to his family, to his 
church, his party, and a grievous personal loss to me. 
I bid you all a sad good-by. 



5 > 



From The Daily Industrial News, Greensboro 



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Charles D. Mclver is dead" — as a pall this sen- 
tence fell upon Greensboro yesterday afternoon. And 
not to Greensboro alone, but to the entire State is the 
loss — not alone to the State but to the entire educa- 
tional world. For Dr. Mclver had made for himself 
a place in his chosen field of work that cannot be filled. 
To the education of the South, especially the women 
of the South, he had devoted his life. 

Coming from the University, he taught in the public 
schools, coming from the schools to the State Normal 
and Industrial College while that Institution was yet 

9 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



an unrealized thought — he was its godfather. Over 
its infancy he watched with tenderest care. Through 
its childhood he planned and labored for its upbuild- 
ing with all the power of his commanding ability and 
tireless energy. All those whom he had gathered 
around him in the work, he imbued with his own 
enthusiasm, and largely as the result of the labor and 
the love of this one man has arisen the wonderful 
Institution of today. 

But though the Normal College was the dearest 
child of his endeavor, he did not confine himself to it 
alone. Every public measure promising good appealed 
to him and received his hearty support. The campaign 
for better rural schools found in Doctor Mclver a 
champion second to none in loyal love or effective 
assistance. In the movement inaugurated by the 
Southern Education Board he was the commanding 
figure. His was the brain from which sprang the idea 
of the reunion of former North Carolinians. His was 
the hand that guided it to a successful conclusion. In 
all things that he undertook, many and varied though 
they were, success crowned his efforts; for his heart 
was in his work. 

Through his work will he live in the history of North 
Carolina, but even aside from his work, he will not be 
forgotten by the multitude who called him friend. He 
is gone with much already accomplished, and yet with 
apparently much still before. In the prime of man- 
hood he was suddenly stricken and taken from the field 
of useful endeavor — dead but not forgotten. 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Of him might well be said what Scott so beautifully 
wrote of one who bore the same blood as he, and with 
but the change of a name we repeat the lines : 

"He is gone on the mountain, 

He is lost to the forest, 
Like a summer-dried fountain, 

When our need was the sorest. 
The foni, reappearing, 

From the rain drops shall borrow, 
But to us comes no cheering, 

To Mclver no morrow. 

"The hand of the reaper 

Takes the ears that are hoary, 
But the voice of the weeper 

Wails manhood in glory; 
The autumn winds rushing 

Waft the leaves that are searest, 
But our flower was in flushing 

When blighting was nearest. 

"Fleet foot on the correi, 

Sage counsel in cumber, 
Eed hand in the foray, 

How sound is thy slumber! 
Like the dew on the mountain, 

Like the foam on the river, 
Like the bubble on the fountain, 

Thou art gone and forever I" 

Yes, gone in the body and gone from the sight of 
mortal eyes, and yet not wholly gone, for never will 
his memory fade from the minds and hearts of those 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



who love humanity and love those who loved humanity, 
and of such in the fullest measure was Charles Duncan 
Mclver. 

Editorial in Greensboro Record 

Not only has Greensboro and the State, but the 
Nation as well, sustained a severe loss in the death of 
Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the State Normal 
and Industrial College in this place. The particulars 
of his untimely end are found elsewere today. 

Men — great men — die every day, but their places 
are soon filled and they are almost forgotten, but it 
is no exaggeration to say that to fill his place as Presi- 
dent of this great Institution will be a task of difficult 
proportions. Men to operate and successfully con- 
duct the College will be found, but to measure up with 
the late President is another matter. His life was con- 
secrated to the work; he it was who first agitated the 
establishment of the School — a School to enable woman 
to become independent. He was its first and only 
President. The writer knows that the most flatter- 
ing offers were made him to connect himself with other 
institutions, the first being the presidency of the Uni- 
versity at Chapel Hill, but he put them all behind 
him. 

His forte was not only in managing the College, 
but in keeping it always at the forefront ; in building 
it up and enlarging it. He was an aggressive man, 
yet did he have an enemy ? Never ! Critics there were 
plenty, but so open and above board were his methods 

12 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



that even these could but admire him. He used no 
halfway measures; what was worth doing was with 
him worth doing with all his might. Politicians 
sought his overthrow, but he gave them no heed; his 
sole aim was the welfare of his beloved Institution. 
How well he succeeded need not be told ; it is a lasting 
monument to his memory. 

He was a lovable man, a man of originality; his 
methods were decidedly original, and equipped with 
the strong arm of justice, he swept all opposition 
before him whenever and wherever the College was 
concerned. Every one of the thousands of young 
women who attended "The Normal" loved him; he 
made their lives pleasant; his great aim was to make 
the poorest girl, the friendless girl, feel that she was 
at home ; that poverty was an honor if honorably worn. 

But Dr. Mclver's work was not by any means con- 
fined to the Institution over which he presided so ably ; 
he was prominently identified with educational work 
throughout the country, having for many years been 
an honored member of the Southern Education Board, 
while he was perhaps among the first to agitate local 
taxation for school purposes, and the increasingly large 
number of school houses that now dot the State can be 
attributed to his zeal and indefatigable work. 

When all these things are recognized it becomes 
apparent that his loss is national. 

Truly has a great man fallen. 



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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Editorial in Greensboro Telegram 

It seems almost impossible to believe that Dr. 
Mclver is dead. It is quite impossible to fully realize 
all that the death of such a man means to the com- 
munity, to the State, and to the Nation — for the 
influence of Charles D. Mclver was bounded only by 
national lines. 

A man of the intensest activity, we can hardly think 
of him as being cold and still in death. He did not 
know how to be half-hearted or lukewarm in anything. 
What he did, he did energetically, strenuously. He 
spoke, even in conversation with a single person, with 
the same vigor and energy. And this is but another 
way of paying him the highest compliment possible 
by accrediting him with being absolutely and always 
true to his convictions. 

The debt that the womanhood of the State owe him 
can never be paid. To him is to be traced in the last 
analysis all the influences which have flown from the 
Normal College for the uplift of North Carolina 
women, for he was the Normal College in the sense 
that it was his creation. He it was who both planned 
and executed, overcoming seemingly insuperable 
obstacles by his titanic energy and determination. 
From first to last the Institution bore the impress of 
his powerful personality and his influence will ever be 
felt in its future history. 

But the range of his sympathies included more than 
the College he loved so well. He was as loyal to 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Greensboro as he was to the College. He planned 
for his State. He loved the South. And he had as 
firm convictions regarding the policy of the Nation 
as a whole as he had in the other spheres of activity 
in which he was so dominant a factor. 

He was ever a loyal friend to the City of Greensboro. 
He believed in it intensely. He was always ready to 
do anything in his power to advance its interests. 

His influence on the educational life of the State 
will never be fully appreciated. Perhaps it is safe 
to say that no man ever influenced it so decidedly. 

In national and southern educational meetings he 
was a central, commanding figure. 

It is a common saying that any man's place can be 
filled. But where will another Charles D. Mclver be 
found? 



15 



A NOBLE REQUIEM 



From the Daily Industrial News 

Seldom has a man had a grander requiem than Dr. 
Mclver. 

The eyes of the State were on Greensboro last night. 
From near and far men and women had gathered 
to hear words of public import fall from the lips of 
one of the most remarkable men this country has ever 
produced. 

William Jennings Bryan, the trusted leader of mil- 
lions of his fellow citizens, came to our city to speak. 
He had intended to talk on the important public 
questions of the day. But as a special train was bear- 
ing him swiftly to our city, Dr. Mclver, who was of 
the party, was suddenly stricken by the hand of death. 

As if by common consent, the character of the 
journey was altered. The assembled multitude 
crowded the opera house, but over all there was a 
hush as in the presence of death. 

The great Nebraskan, who has so often swayed 
thousands by his eloquence, with a thoughtful con- 
sideration and tender courtesy that marks a kindly, 
generous heart, pushed aside the political questions 
with which his life has of late been crowded, and spoke 
only of him who lay cold in death. 



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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Tenderly, touching and eloquently the words fell 
from his lips and those who heard knew they came 
from the heart. 

The distinguished visitor and his hearers forgot 
those things which push men asunder and remembered 
the holy sorrow that draws all men together. 

More than generous, more than gracious, truly noble, 
was Mr. Bryan's address — a great man's eulogy upon 
another great man, delivered before an audience that 
loved them both. 

EULOGY BY HON. WILLIAM JENNINGS BBYAN 

Delivered in Greensboro on Monday Night, 
September 17 

I have come to North Carolina to take part in your 
campaign. I came here because I felt that I owed 
to your people a debt of gratitude so large that I 
was under obligation to respond to any demand that 
you might make upon me. 

But, my friends, something has occurred since my 
arrival in this State that makes it impossible for me 
to gratify the expectations that brought you to this 
hall, many of you from distant homes; and yet my 
excuse is one that must appeal to every one of you. 
There was one in this community at whose invitation 
I visited your city twelve years ago. This was one 
of the first States of the South with which I became 
acquainted and it was through an invitation from Dr. 
Charles Mclver that I came here. I have never come 



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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



to North Carolina without seeing him. He has ahvays 
greeted me with a smile, and when I landed in New 
York the other day, after an absence of almost a year, 
I found that he had traveled all the way from North 
Carolina to add his greeting to the greetings extended 
by other friends. And when I arrived this morning, 
he was one of the first to meet me and we enjoyed 
communion together until on our return, without a 
moment's notice he was summoned to the world 
beyond, and the latter part of the journey was made 
with all that was mortal of this friend. 

Do not expect me to make a political speech tonight. 
My mind will not work along political lines. It 
requires all my blood to supply my heart. There is 
none left to make my brain active. All that I can say 
to you tonight is to draw some lessons from a life 
that impressed me as it must have impressed you, and 
if any here wish to hear me on political subjects, I 
will come again and talk to you when I can meet 
your expectations. I could not do it tonight if you 
demanded it of me. 

There is something solemn in standing in the pres- 
ence of death. I do not know that I have ever been 
brought nearer to this mystery than I have been 
brought today. To see one in the full enjoyment of 
life, to see one entering with enthusiasm into all of 
the exercises of the day, and then in a moment find 
that the vital spark has disappeared, and that he lies 
cold in death, is an experience that is rare for me, and 
it is rare for the most of us. But I am sure this subject 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



has come so near to each one of you in the death of 
father or mother, wife or daughter, brother or sis- 
ter, or friend, that there is not one here who will go 
away and criticize me for surrendering to my feelings, 
my personal feelings of friendship, rather than pre- 
senting to you a political address. 

I have traveled some, and I have come back to 
America with a greater pride in my country than I 
ever had before. There is no country on earth like 
ours. I thought it before I left home ; I know it now. 
Go where you will, in either hemisphere, on any con- 
tinent, among any people, and you will not find a 
people like the people of the United States. They 
have all of the qualities that make a nation great, 
and they have them to a degree that you do not find 
in any other land, and the thing that impressed me 
most was that my country is presenting an ideal of 
human life to the world — the highest ideal that the 
world has ever known. There is more altruism in the 
United States than in any other country now known, 
more than in any other country that history tells us 
of. I have found evidences of this altruism every- 
where. I have traveled, following the sun in its course, 
over thousands of miles of the Orient, and in every 
center I found some Americans or group of Americans, 
who from disinterested love for the human race, were 
holding up the light of American civilization, and 
when I reached Bombay and addressed a school sup- 
ported by American money, when I attended another 
institution where little blind Indians were gathered 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



together and taught by American money, I told them 
that we might not be able to boast that the sun never 
set upon our possessions, but that we could boast that 
the sun never set upon American philanthropy; that 
before it went down upon one center of civilization it 
rose upon another. I learned to admire these people 
with a mission, these people with a purpose, these peo- 
ple who are willing to sacrifice themselves for the ben- 
efit of others. And what I loved about our dead friend 
was that he was measuring life by what he put into 
the world and not by what he took out of the world. 
If I were going to describe a successful life and con- 
trast it with a selfish life; if I could illustrate it by 
a picture drawn on canvas, I would present a stagnant 
pool, gathering water from all around, and giving 
forth nothing till at last it became a scene of disease 
and death ; and then I would present on canvas a 
living spring pouring forth constantly of that which 
refreshes and invigorates. I would show that the stag- 
nant pool represents a selfish, self-centered life, and 
that the living spring represents an unselfish life, a 
really successful life; and I look back upon the life 
of Dr. Mclver as a spring overflowing with that which 
refreshes and invigorates. He worked his way up. 
He was an example of what can be done in this coun- 
try. Laboring first to secure his education ; then going 
out and teaching; then starting with a purpose to 
establish a school for women, he had made his impress 
upon the educational system of this State. When I was 
last here he showed me a map on which he had 

20 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



marked places to show where the length of the school 
term had been extended. He was trying to enlarge 
the scope of education. He was trying to bring it 
within the reach of more people. Why? Because he 
loved the human race ; because he wanted to do some- 
thing for them. He might have enjoyed himself at 
home more than when he was off speaking. He might 
have had the quiet of life when he was busy and active, 
but there was within him something that demanded 
that he should go forth and do something. He saw 
the education of your women confined largely to the 
class, that is, higher education, where it was expensive, 
and as his heart was in sympathy with the poor and 
the struggling, he wanted to make it possible for more 
of them to get an education, and with that purpose he 
secured the establishment of a school, and he presided 
over it, and he gave his experience to it, until now he 
has established a great institution here with between 
five hundred and six hundred girls, and they are get- 
ting an education, and he has made education so cheap 
for them that people can now get it who could not 
have afforded it before his work was done. 

Who will measure the things done by such a man? 
I have been in countries where education was scarcely 
known. In India, where less than one per cent, of 
the women can read and write, I looked upon one of 
the most beautiful pieces of architecture in the world. 
Many people think there is not on earth a building 
that equals in beauty the Taj Mahal. It is a tomb that 
a man reared to his wife whom he loved, and people 

21 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



who visit it marvel at its beauty. For more than three 
hundred years it has stood there, the admiration of 
all the world, and yet as I looked upon it, and then 
looked around and saw how few of the women in that 
community were able to read and write, how few of 
them had ever had anything done for them, I asked 
myself: " Would not this emperor have paid a higher 
tribute to his wife, had he done something for woman- 
hood, trying to lift woman up and make her lot easier 
and her path brighter? Would he not have paid a 
greater tribute to his wife than in building that splen- 
did marble monument in the midst of destitution, 
disease and despair?" Dr. Mclver chose the wiser 
part. He paid his tribute to womanhood by trying to 
bring happiness into a larger number of homes. Who 
will measure the influence that he has exerted upon 
this State? He is dead; in a few days his remains 
will be consigned to the grave ; they will heap the dirt 
up over him ; from time to time loving friends will go 
and put flowers there, but, my friends, Dr. Mclver 
still lives in the work that he has done. He has 
touched the hearts of your people, and through their 
hearts he will live on. Some time I think we over- 
estimate the influence of the mind, and if there is not 
something in education more than mental instruction, 
it is sometimes a disappointment to those who have it, 
and to their friends, but Dr. Mclver had behind his 
intellectual enthusiasm a moral enthusiasm, and you 
could not come into contact with his life, consecrated to 
great work, without feeling that somehow there had 

22 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



been kindled in your own heart an enthusiasm like his. 
What has he done ? How long will his influence be felt ? 
Who can tell? Who will measure the influence that 
heart can exert upon heart? You can measure the 
influence that a body can exert upon a body. You can 
measure the influence that a mind can exert upon a 
mind, but who will measure the influence that a heart 
can exert upon the heart of the human race? We 
speak of inventions of genius, and they have been 
great. We marvel that one can stand by the side of 
a telegraphic instrument, and by means of an electric 
current talk to people ten thousand miles away, but 
the achievements of the heart are still greater. The 
heart that is full of love for its fellows, the heart that 
yearns to do some great good, the heart that puts into 
motion something for the benefit of the human race, 
will speak to hearts that will beat ten thousand years 
after all our hearts are still. How are people remem- 
bered ? Do you build monuments to them ? Is that the 
only way ? Have you ever gone into an old graveyard, 
a hundred years old, or two hundred, and looked at the 
monuments over the graves? How few of all the 
countless millions of the human race will ever be 
remembered one hundred years after their death by 
any monument that marks their resting-place ! I am 
glad that the Creator — as infinite in love as in power 
— has made it possible for every human being to 
erect for himself a monument that will endure when 
all the monuments of granite and bronze have crum- 
bled to decay. I believe such a monument has been 

23 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



reared by Dr. Mclver. Five hundred students — into 
how many homes do these people go ? Count the grad- 
uates who have gone out from year to year. Count 
the homes which they have helped to make better, and 
then trace, if you can, this tremendous influence as it 
goes on in increasing circles generation after genera- 
tion. We can measure the distance of the farthest 
star from the earth, but who will measure the influence 
of a single kind word or a single kind act on the 
generations that are yet to come? 

Dr. Mclver has shown us what man can do. He has 
not only shown us this, but also what man ought to 
do. He has given us an ideal of life, and I am coming 
more and more to believe that the ideal is the impor- 
tant thing. There are Democrats here and they have 
spoken kindly of my Democracy. There are Republi- 
cans here, and they have sometimes criticized me possi- 
bly with severity. I want to say to you that I have 
reached this point, that I believe that the things that 
hold us together as citizens are more important and 
more numerous than the things that separate us dur- 
ing campaigns into hostile battles, and I am more 
wedded to the ideal that shapes the individual life 
than I am to any party policy. No matter how good 
we make our government, no one will get the benefit 
of it if he has an ideal that does not lead him onward. 
No matter how bad our government may be, those who 
have ideals that are best can stand the bad government, 
and will least suffer from it. If I could look into your 
hearts and see what ideals you have there, I could 

24 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



measure with some exactness your future with its 
happiness or its woe. The ideal controls the life, and 
one of the most important things to present to the 
young is an ideal. I speak as a parent to parents when 
I tell you that the most important thing that we parents 
have to do is to give to our children a conception of 
life that is a worthy one and that will control their 
destiny. I believe that no ideal is high enough for a 
great life, a good life, a successful life, that is not high 
enough to be seen from both sides of the river that 
divides time and eternity. I believe that Dr. Mclver 
had an ideal, a Christian ideal, a conception of life 
as not limited to a few years on earth — but as a small 
arc of an infinite circle. 

I have been a member of a Christian church from 
the time I was fourteen. I passed through my period 
of scepticism as a school boy, and I was planted upon 
solid rock by the time I reached manhood, and as I 
have grown older my views on the subject have deep- 
ened, but I say to you this trip around the world has 
much increased not only my devotion to the Christian 
ideal of life, but my appreciation of its priceless value. 
We are doing more for the world when we give it 
a conception of life in harmony with our religion than 
we are in any other way, and I am glad that our dead 
brother day by day held before those who came into 
contact with him a Christian ideal of life, an ideal 
of service, an ideal that life is to be measured by the 
service rendered; that we are to be giving forth all 
the time, and not merely selfishly trying to secure the 

25 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



richest rewards and the most of individual comfort. 
I had my ambitions when I was a boy. You had your 
ambitions, and these ambitions are changed. Some- 
times a boy starts out with the idea that he is going 
to be rich, and he bends everything to that end ; some- 
times one starts out, and his goal is social distinction, 
and he bends every energy in that direction ; another 
starts out with an ambition for office, and he lays his 
plans and works patiently, looking forward to some 
coveted honor. I had my ambition. When I was a 
boy only fourteen years of age, I conceived the ambi- 
tion of going to the United States Senate. I never 
thought of going to Congress ; never thought of being 
President — it was to be a United States Senator. I 
didn't expect to go soon; I was going to be a lawyer 
first ; I was going to make my fortune in the law, and 
after I was independent I was going to enter politics 
and the United States Senate was the object of my 
ambition. Circumstances changed the course of my 
life, and experience has given me, I think, a better 
ambition than to hold office. One hundred years from 
now the world will not remember me by what the 
world has done for me. If the world remembers me 
at all, it will be for what I have done for the world. 
I am conscious of changing ideals as I make progress 
toward the grave. You are conscious of changing 
ideals. When we are young, things look great to us 
that after awhile look very insignificant. Struggles 
that excite us and arouse us are looked back to with 
amusement. But, my friends, as we approach the 

26 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



grave we begin to wonder what the world is going to 
say of us ; wonder how the world is going to feel when 
we are gone. We wonder what impression our lives 
are going to make upon those about us. Those of you 
who are older already think of this, as I think of it. 
You who are younger will think of it as you grow older. 
I believe that Dr. Mclver 's life was a success. * * 
I will tell you a test of whether life has been a success 
or not. We all live amid an environment. Sometimes 
we are only known to a little circle, sometimes to a large 
circle; but when we die there is going to be a just 
verdict, and that just and honest verdict is the thing 
that we ourselves, when we come to take a proper view 
of life, will be more interested in than the houses and 
lands that we leave for our children to quarrel over. 
And I have thought that it can be said that a life has 
been lived successfully if, when it passes out, we can 
say of the person, as we can say of this dear friend of 
mine and of yours : 

"The night is darker because his light is gone out; 
The world is not so warm because his heart is cold in 
death.' » 

From Greensboro Daily Record 

The most touching incident and one that showed 
louder than any blare of trumpet was the fact that 
last night on the arrival of Mr. Bryan and during 
his journey to the place of speaking there was scarcely 
a cheer, caused by the respect for the late Dr. Mclver, 

27 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



whose death cast so deep a shadow over the whole city 
and country. It takes something to keep people from 
going wild at the sight of Bryan. No greater tribute 
could be offered to the lamented President than this. 

WITH TEAR -DIMMED EYES 
From Greensboro Patriot 

A message that enshrouded the State in gloom and 
spread a pall of sorrow over the entire city of Greens- 
boro was flashed over the wires from Hillsboro between 
four and five o'clock Monday afternoon. It an- 
nounced the sudden death of Dr. Charles Duncan 
Mclver, President of the State Normal and Industrial 
College here, and one of the foremost educators of the 
South. People were slow to credit the shocking news. 
It was difficult to realize that such a strong man was 
cut down in his prime and at the height of his useful- 
ness, but it was all too true. 

Last night (Tuesday, September 18) Dr. Mclver 's 
body lay in state from 7 :00 until 10 :00 at the main 
building of the State Normal and Industrial College, 
and hundreds of people, including many old and new 
students of the Institution gathering for the opening 
Thursday, viewed it with tear-dimmed eyes. Today at 
11 :00 o 'clock the funeral will take place from the First 
Presbyterian Church, of which the deceased had long 
been a member. His pastor for so many years, Rev. 
E. W. Smith, D. D., now of Louisville, Ky., cannot 

28 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



reach the city in time for the service, and Rev. L. W. 
Crawford, D. D., of Reidsville, likewise a staunch 
personal friend of long standing, will officiate, assisted 
by the Presbyterian ministers of the city. The Masonic 
orders of Winston and Greensboro will participate in 
the services. 

To give expression to the eulogies of the deceased 
heard on every hand would require many times the 
space at our command. Beyond question he was the 
foremost citizen of Greensboro. In his zeal to promote 
education in a practical manner he neglected none of 
the other duties of life and no worthy cause ever 
lacked his support. Enthusiasm and far-sighted 
ability characterized his every act, no matter in what 
cause his energies were enlisted. His influence on 
the educational life of the State will be longest felt, 
however, because first of all he was an educator in 
the truest sense of the word. Truly the College which 
he virtually established and over whose destinies he 
has since so ably presided is an enduring monument 
to his memory. 



29 



LAID TO REST BY LOVING 

FRIENDS 



From The Raleigh News and Observer 

The funeral of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, late Presi- 
dent of the State Normal and Industrial College, took 
place today, Wednesday, September 19, amid unprec- 
edented marks of respect, affection and esteem. 
Every business house of whatever kind was closed, 
the schools and factories during the two hours of the 
ceremony, and the Superior Court adjourned for the 
time. From this and other States had come a great 
many personal and educational friends, besides repre- 
sentatives of various interests in which he had been 
officially connected in the educational and philan- 
thropical fields of endeavor. Out of town members of 
the Children's Home Society, presidents of colleges 
and universities and officials of his own great 
Woman's University, were here. 

The First Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. 
Mclver was a member, was filled to overflowing and 
the chancel was banked with floral offerings sent from 
friends and loved ones from all over the State and 
from other States. 

An immense concourse followed the remains to the 

tomb, at Green Hill Cemetery, where the Masons laid 

him finally to rest with the impressive ritual of the 

Order. 

30 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From Greensboro Telegram, September 19, 1906 

In the presence of an immense concourse of sorrow- 
ful relatives and friends, the funeral of Dr. Charles 
Duncan Mdver, the lamented President of the State 
Normal and Industrial College, was held at 11:00 
o 'clock this morning in the First Presbyterian Church, 
of which the deceased had been a consecrated member 
for a number of years. Every seat in the spacious 
church and annex was occupied and a great many 
stood in the side aisles and doors, while hundreds of 
others were unable to gain admittance. 

Never before was a funeral service in Greensboro 
so largely attended, nor greater respect shown to 
the memory of a departed citizen. Business through- 
out the city was almost entirely suspended from 10 :30 
until 12:00 o'clock, and all Greensboro folk joined in 
honoring the deceased. The funeral cortege was one 
of the longest, if not the longest, ever seen here, being 
at least half a mile in length, and included not only a 
great throng of citizens with bowed heads and crushed 
and bleeding hearts, but also many prominent men 
and women from different parts of this and other 
States. 

From Greensboro Industrial News, Sept. 20, 1906 

In the city from which radiated his life's work the 
body of Charles Duncan Mclver was on yesterday 
consigned to its last resting place. 

31 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From near and far men of prominence had gathered 
together to do honor to the memory of him who had 
so enshrined himself in the heart of all North Caro- 
linians. The stillness of death hung over the city. 
Closed doors and lowered shades marked the business 
streets through which slowly passed the funeral line. 
Men and women instinctively felt the solemnity of 
the hour, and reverently turned aside from worldly 
occupations to join in the obsequies. 

Never before had the city so felt a personal loss in 
death of one of its citizens. 

To the State Doctor Mclver was to a large degree 
the incarnation of an idea — the educational uplift- 
ing of the people — by the education of the children, 
especially the girls of the State. 

To the people of Greensboro Doctor Mclver was this, 
but he was more. He had for years dwelt among us. 
Thoroughly had he identified himself with our local 
affairs, our local need, our local ambitions ; and almost 
we forgot that a great educator had passed away in 
our grief over the loss of a friend. 

His body now rests peacefully on the breast of the 
old Mother State that he so loved and to whom he had 
rendered such splendid service ; but we feel that only 
his body rests and that his soul is still marching as it 
marched of yore, in the forefront of the vanguard of 
that great army of men and women who are battling 
for the uplift of North Carolina. 



32 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



FUNERAL SERMON BY REV. L. W. CRAWFORD, D. D. 

"Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents 
and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him. " — 
Daniel 6: 3. 

The elements that constitute true manhood, real 
nobility, supreme excellence, have been the same in 
all ages of the world. Modes of life may vary, customs 
may change, educative processes may differ, but that 
which determines the value and worth of men in all 
countries, under all forms of civilization and among 
all races is, to a large extent, the same. Let me call 
your attention for a moment to the qualities that seem 
to me essential to real greatness in human life and 
character. 

I. The first essential is the power of vision: the 
ability to see. In speaking of the heathen gods the 
Scriptures say, "Eyes have they, but they see not." 
So it is with millions of people. Our Lord said of 
the Jews in his day, "Seeing they see not." That is, 
theirs is a surface view, they do not understand, they 
do not comprehend. The function of sight is merely 
to paint on the retina of the eye a photograph of an 
external object; but true vision penetrates its depths, 
discovers its hidden things, grasps its whole content 
with its resources and possibilities. To illustrate : 
Michael Angelo passing along a highway saw a block 
of marble. As he fastened his gaze upon it he said 
within himself, I see an angel in that marble. He had 
the power of vision. Hundreds had looked upon that 

33 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



stone before, but had seen only its form and surface. 
Fulton sat quietly in his home meditating. A kettle 
of water hung over the fire. He watched the lid rise 
and fall as the steam collected and escaped. Thou- 
sands had watched the same thing without a thought 
of what it meant. Fulton was a seer, he had the 
power of vision. His eye penetrated beneath the sur- 
face and he saw there the principle and power of con- 
densed steam, the knowledge and application of which 
was later to revolutionize the industrial world. Sir 
Isaac Newton, the great astronomer, saw an apple 
fall from the limb of a tree to the ground — a common- 
place occurrence which millions had witnessed before. 
But Newton had the power of vision, and in the fall- 
ing apple he discovered the law of gravitation that 
controls the movement of every mote that floats in the 
air, and guides every planet in its orbit, and holds in 
its place every system of suns and stars that make 
up the great universe. 

Daniel, to whom reference is made in the text, had 
both sight and vision. He lived at a period before the 
Sun of Righteousness had fully shined upon the world 
and given to man a knowledge of higher, better and 
diviner things. He was reared in a kingdom and 
country where wealth and power were deified and 
worshipped. He lived in great and mighty Babylon, 
whose hundred and twenty provinces, whose mighty 
rivers and lofty mountains and rich valleys, whose 
walled cities, hanging gardens and towers and palaces, 
had made her the wonder and admiration of the world. 

34 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Like others he looked with pride and pleasure on these 
things, but with a seer's eye, with a prophet's ken, he 
set them in their right relation to their Creator. On 
hill and valley he saw the footprints of God. He saw 
His hand guiding the course of nature and shaping 
the destiny of empires. There came to him the con- 
sciousness that all is unsubstantial and fleeting that 
is not allied to God; that all is vanity that does not 
lead to him; that the world passeth away and the 
the things thereof, but the Lord abideth forever. He 
felt the need of His touch, the inspiration of His Spirit, 
the inflow of His life and power. He began to seek 
after God. Day by day he turned his thought to the 
fountain of life. Day by day he sought communion 
with the unseen. Three times each day, the record is, 
he turned aside from office and toil that in his closet he 
might feel after Him and ally himself to the source 
of all life and power. In the heart and head and 
spirit of His servant the light and truth and power 
of God began to pulsate, and thus it was that "this 
Daniel was preferred above all the presidents and 
princes because an excellent spirit was in him. ' ' Then 
all Babylon realized that a new ruler had come to 
the throne, and that all the material wealth and splen- 
dor of the great capitol were not to be compared in 
value to the wisdom and power, the faith and right- 
eousness of Daniel. 

II. The second essential to true greatness is ability 
and willingness to serve. Vision penetrates, compre- 
hends and grasps, but, if it does no more, little is 

35 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



accomplished. There must also be ability to materi- 
alize, to organize, to project and control. Vision gives 
an ideal and it may be perfect and exalted, but unless 
the ideal is made the actual it is worth little to the 
author or to the world. To one who toils without 
vision the task is heavy and burdensome. If one has 
a vision of what ought to be and does not throw him- 
self into it, if one has an ideal and cannot convert it 
into the actual, he is a dreamer and not a master. 
It is only when the seer becomes the worker, when the 
ideal is clothed with form and fashioned into being, 
that humanity is greatly benefited. 

When Michael Angelo called the angel from the 
marble, converted the ideal into the actual, clothed it 
with form and it stood forth perfect in outline and 
feature, then the world felt the throb of his power 
and the inspiration of his genius. When Fulton 
applied the principle of condensed steam to machinery 
and locomotion, then the power and genius of the 
man thrilled all men with their greatness. When 
Daniel in Babylon had a vision of divine things he 
was considered a dreamer, but when the life and 
power and wisdom of God were actualized in his own 
being, when through his heart and brain and spirit 
these divine elements began to express themselves and 
touch the lives of men, solve the problems of govern- 
ment, enrich the thought of the world and profoundly 
impress humanity and elevate peoples, races and 
nations, then the real value of Daniel was recognized 
and understood. Then it was that the king, the court, 

36 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



the presidents and princes willingly gave him the 
preeminence. 

The power of vision and the ability and willingness 
to serve are always and everywhere the real test of 
human greatness. When we come to measure our 
departed friend by this standard, when we apply this 
test to his life and character, how really great does 
he appear! May I not say that in his sphere, in his 
chosen field, he was peerless — that he was above all 
presidents and princes because of the spirit within 
him? 

Does anyone who knew Charles D. Mclver doubt for 
a moment that he was a seer, a prophet ? None. That 
he had the power of vision and saw angels and mighty 
forces where others saw only stones and apples? 
Years ago he saw with prophetic eye, he discerned 
with a master spirit, and penetrated beneath the sur- 
face of things. He had a vision clear and well defined, 
a perfect ideal. 

As he went throughout his native State, whose every 
foot of soil was sacred and dear, and in whose indus- 
trial, educational and religious progress he felt the 
deepest interest, he saw her vast material resources 
and the infinite possibilities of her people. He believed 
that North Carolina could be made one of the first 
states in our great republic, whose influence for 
good would be felt throughout the nation and the 
world. He saw with others that the solution of this 
problem was in popular Christian education, but it 
was his own peculiar vision that this work could be 

37 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



best accomplished, this end soonest realized, by put- 
ting in every home the highest type of womanhood. 
Give the State mothers educated, refined and Christ- 
like, he said, and all her material, social, educational, 
economic and religious problems will be solved, her 
development and progress will be steady, and her 
position and fame be secured for all time to come. This 
conviction came to him with overwhelming power, and 
though Herculean seemed the task, he set about its 
accomplishment in sober earnestness. His highest 
aspiration henceforth was to be obedient to the Heav- 
enly vision; the one purpose that dominated his life 
was to finish the work God gave him to do. He was 
no idle dreamer, but a man with a genius for work and 
ability to grasp and master the situation. His ener- 
gies were first directed towards creating and strength- 
ening public sentiment, which he crystalized and con- 
centrated upon centers of influence. The State soon 
felt the power of the man and responded to his splen- 
did leadership with such sympathy and generosity 
that ere long the cherished dream of his heart stood 
forth a living reality. 

We are accustomed to speak of the State Normal 
and Industrial College as Dr. Mclver's monument. 
Largely it is, and one that will endure and continue 
to give glory to his name and light to the Common- 
wealth. But this is only one feature of his great work. 
His chief monument is in the hearts and lives of the 
people and in the present advanced position of his 
State. Governors, legislators, judges, teachers, state 

38 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



and denominational schools and colleges, and the 
humblest citizen as well, felt the magnetism of his 
personality and the inspiration of his enthusiasm. The 
three thousand girls who have come under his guard- 
ianship have caught his spirit, and gone out with his 
ideals, and the two hundred thousand pupils to whom 
they have communicated these have been enriched 
and uplifted thereby. Nor were his works and influ- 
ence limited by state lines. As the years went by the 
circle of his influence widened, until his life pulsated 
through our southland and many northern states also 
were benefited by his energy and wisdom. His services 
were more and more in demand, and he willingly gave 
his time and strength wherever he could help the cause 
he loved. As evidence of the love and esteem in which 
he is held, this city is today in sackcloth and ashes, 
our commonwealth is bowed in grief and sorrow and 
in every state of the Union many mourn his departure 
as a national loss. 

III. One other fact I must mention. The life and 
usefulness of a good man do not end with a few years 
on earth. Man's immortality is clearly taught in 
God's word. That we should live not for this world 
alone Christ emphasized in all his earthly teachings. 
He impressed the fact that to man the world is a 
school house where we are to learn a few lessons, a 
stage where for a time we are to act our part, a field 
for investigation and research, but surely not our 
home or abiding place, nor the field for the highest 
achievement. 



39 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



That wonderful man, Moses, the great statesman 
and lawgiver of Israel, who broke the yoke of Egyp- 
tian bondage and led the people through all the educa- 
tive processes of the wilderness journey, came at last 
to the borders of the promised land. There, on the 
summit of Pisgah, God met and talked with him. He 
showed him the hills and valleys of that goodly land, 
and then said, "Moses, you have done enough, come 
up higher." And with eye undimmed, and his 
natural force unabated, he at once entered upon a 
larger sphere of action beyond. 

Elijah, the wonder working prophet of Israel, who 
lived so near to God that he shut up the heavens that 
it did not rain for three years, and called down fire 
from Heaven to consume the sacrifice and altar on 
Mount Carmel, was also the great educator of the 
nation, the very life of the schools of the prophets at 
Bethel and Gilgal and Jericho. One day while busy 
with his life's work, active, strong and brave, there 
met him on the highway a chariot of fire and horses 
of flame, and in an instant he was translated from 
earthly labor to higher service above. 

We can but recall in connection with these scenes 
that of the transfiguration of Christ. As He stood 
on Mount Hermon glorified, His face shining with 
the brightness of the noonday sun, His very garments 
white and glistening, His humanity swallowed up in 
the glory of His divinity, the heavens opened and 
there came forth Moses and Elijah wrapped in celes- 
tial light, leading the angelic hosts. There, in full 

40 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



possession of all their powers, they talked with Christ 
concerning the things that should shortly take place 
at Jerusalem, as though they had part in the very 
councils of heaven. Surely death but opens the door 
into real life. 

How like Moses was our departed brother, in that 
patiently and heroically he struggled and toiled to 
lead the people out of the bondage of ignorance into 
the liberty of light and knowledge. The march 
through the wilderness was ended, and the promised 
land in sight. A sword was in his hand, a crown upon 
his brow, when God said, "Come up higher." "With 
eye undimmed and natural force unabated, he laid 
down his work on earth that he might enter upon a 
grander work above. 

Carrying, like Elijah, the great cause of education 
on his heart, full of life and zeal and courage, he was 
busy and absorbed in the opening of the schools of 
the land. Ever ready, as was his wont, to minister 
to others and to contribute his part to the public 
welfare, he left his home on the morning of Septem- 
ber 17th in company with friends, to do honor to the 
foremost private citizen of our nation. As always, so 
on this occasion, he had performed well his part. 
The day had been a glorious triumph, a succession of 
brilliant events. The sun had crossed the meridian, 
and, slowly sinking in the west, cast his glory athwart 
valley and hill. The happy company was homeward 
bound. Was it not a fitting hour for the departure of 
our friend? Speeding o'er the great highway on a 

41 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



mission of unselfish helpfulness to others, surrounded 
by men of state, himself second only to the guest of 
honor, in the inner circle of whose affections he filled 
so large a place, in the prime and vigor of a splendid 
manhood, planning larger things for his state and 
nation, God called him, a chariot appeared, and in a 
moment Charles D. Mclver was promoted from work 
on earth to higher service above, where instant vision 
is perfect joy and immortal labor eternal rest. Servant 
of God, well done. 

Let us catch his spirit, emulate his example, take up 
his work and carry it forward. 

With our loins girt about and our lamps trimmed 
and burning, let us be ready to answer to the call 
when our summons comes. 



42 



PRESS TRIBUTES 



From Greensboro Telegram 

Calmer thought on the death of Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver serves only to increase the sense of loss — loss 
to the College, the City, the State and the educational 
life of the Nation. Naturally we feel most keenly 
the loss to the City. Was there ever quite so enthusi- 
astic a Greensboro-lover as Dr. Mclver? The College, 
of course, was first with him, and then came his pro- 
found concern about the record and the future of 
the State educationally. But in a temperament so 
ardent there was love and zeal in other directions, 
and Greensboro and its future as a live, hustling 
metropolis of the Piedmont region lay very close to his 
heart. All remember the active and important part 
he took in the arrangements for the Reunion. Like- 
wise all know how in every public meeting looking 
to the city's good he was a moving spirit. With his 
ability to arouse other people, he was a power in every 
undertaking. The loss to the city by his death is 
great indeed. 

And the personal loss to those whom he met only 
occasionally is great, very great. Dr. Mclver 's was 
an energizing, stimulating personality. No reasonably 
responsive person came within range of him without 



43 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



feeling the electrifying thrill of his wonderful energy. 
To hear him talk was to be challenged to think and to 
think with all the precision and thoroughness one 
could muster. He was no man of the cloister. He was a 
man among men. No activity of any kind was there 
that did not interest him and bristle with truths and 
suggestions for him to gather. So it was that he 
had a wide acquaintance with all sorts and conditions 
of men. 

And all who knew him mourn him sincerely. 

From The Weekly Tar Heel, Greensboro 

It was a sad day that took from this life Dr. Charles 
D. Mclver. He was one of the best and most valuable 
men in North Carolina. He lived for humanity. His 
life's work has been for the good of his fellow beings, 
for their elevation and advancement. No man has 
done more for education than he, and easily he was 
the leading educator of the State. His place in the 
educational field will be hard to fill. 

From Raleigh News and Observer 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, Presi- 
dent of the State Normal and Industrial College, 
which occurred on his Avay home on the Bryan special 
train yesterday afternoon, is in every sense a deep 
calamity to a people he has served with brilliancy and 
with unceasing energy and devotion. The State of 

44 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYEE 



North Carolina, the Normal and Industrial College, 
and the cause of education in the South have suffered 
a loss which it will be impossible to repair. 

Charles D. Mclver was the best type of Southern 
manhood. His faith was profound, his courage uncon- 
querable and his capacity for labor apparently a thing 
that had no limit when the interests which he held 
dear were concerned. He was of massive brain and 
electric personality. Easily of national size, he pre- 
ferred to stay in North Carolina and devote his genius 
to her educational advancement. The Normal and 
Industrial College was in many respects the child of 
his creation, and no parent loved a child better than 
he did the institution over which he presided, and 
which owes to him, more than to any other single 
force, its high position as one of the chief glories of 
the State. 

Taken in the flush of vigorous manhood, with no 
intimation of the summons, with a brilliant life appar- 
ently unfolding into a more brilliant future, his 
death is one of those apparent inconsistencies of 
nature which give to the deepest grief an added pang. 
He had done so much that his need had become impera- 
tive. No man could have left behind him more sorrow 
or better memory. 

From Charlotte Observer 

The news of the death of Dr. Charles Duncan 
Mclver will carry a shock from one end of the State 

45 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



to the other. He was known in person in almost 
every county, and we shall think that in all the work 
he has done for the State the best was when he and 
Dr. Alderman toured it in summers agone and 
addressed teachers ' institutes — and educated not more 
the teachers than the people. Almost certainly the 
revival of the interest in education in the State could be 
traced to these county institutes and to the direction 
and addresses of these two brilliant young men. After 
this period Dr. Mclver became the head of the Normal 
and Industrial College of the State. Through this 
instrumentality he has done unspeakably for the 
young women of North Carolina. Upon the subject 
of education he was an enthusiast ; an always rational, 
intelligent enthusiast. No man in our history has done 
more to forward it. His own institution, the 
institution which, one will say, was born to him, 
which he nursed and fostered, was the object of his 
special and natural affection, but in the whole field he 
was a champion, an advocate, and in his death the 
cause has lost a stalwart friend. It will be difficult 
to fill the vacancy which his death has created. It 
was a proper tribute paid him at Greensboro last 
evening, that there was no political address, but that 
the meeting was made one of memorial. Had he lived 
until the twenty-seventh of this month Dr. Mclver 
would have been forty-six years of age. He died too 
young — before his life work was nearly completed. 



46 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From Charlotte News 

It is with a feeling of deep regret and sadness that 
the people of our State hear of the sudden taking 
away of Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, President of 
the State Normal College at Greensboro. Dr. Mclver 
might be classed among the foremost, if not the fore- 
most educator of North Carolina, and his reputation 
was of national extent. His service to the cause of 
education, most especially that of young ladies, can- 
not be estimated. For a number of years he has 
wrought valiantly in the interest of the State Normal 
College and the fruits of his labors are to be seen on 
every hand. Next to his work along this line, might be 
considered the extensive good he accomplished when a 
few years ago he toured the State speaking at Teach- 
ers' Institutes. By this means he was instrumental 
in bringing about a renaissance of interest in the 
subject of education never wrought before. He had 
the best interests of the boys and girls at heart, of 
all of them, and his service to them will continue to 
bear fruit long after his body shall have returned to 
dust. His death is the State's loss. 

From Wilmington Messenger 

Mr. Bryan's triumphal tour of the State was changed 
into a funeral procession from Durham to Greensboro 
because of the sudden death on the special train of 
President Charles D. Mclver, of the State Normal and 
Industrial College. It was a sad event indeed. Under 

47 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



any circumstances the death of this man, one of the 
most prominent citizens of the State and one of her 
leading educators, would have brought grief to his 
host of friends, but especially distressing was it on 
such an occasion. Mr. Bryan put aside the role of 
politician and stepped down from the position of his 
party's leader to kneel beside the lifeless body of a 
friend loved and admired, who had been stricken unto 
death while joining with other admirers and friends 
of the great man to do him honor and give him hearty 
welcome to their State. It was sad indeed that death 
should have intruded upon that joyous assemblage 
of leading men of our State who had gathered to do 
honor to the man who is the recognized national leader 
of his party. Still sadder is it to the State that death 
should have marked for its own one who was doing 
such noble work for the education and uplifting of 
the young women of our State. It will be difficult for 
the State to fill his place as President of the Normal 
College. He was thoroughly capable and his heart 
and soul were in the work that had been intrusted 
to him. He loved his work and he rejoiced in the 
results of that work, which were in evidence through- 
out the length and breadth of our State wherever a 
graduate of his College was to be found. 

From New Bern Journal 

The Supreme Being grants to few men such a fitting 
and glorious closing to life as was given Charles 

48 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Duncan Mclver. Many men perform noble work in 
their lives on earth, but some cloud, some slight 
obstacle, arises to disturb or in a degree mar their final 
efforts. To Dr. Mclver was given energy, genius, the 
strength for hard and persistent work, combined with 
natural and moral characteristics which made him a 
natural leader. Genial, whole-souled, there was in him 
the irresistible personality of a Man. During no 
period of his life was his personality so strong as at 
the hour when the Divine call sounded. His work 
was always finished, although each new hour and day 
presented rich opportunities for his efforts, and no 
hour or day was wasted. It was given this great man, 
the genius, the ability to round out his work, as few 
men can, so that what he did was both well done and 
finished. And so called suddenly from his life's work 
to a life greater and more reaching, Charles Duncan 
Mclver could pass away with no regrets of work left 
undone. He could have done much more, if it had 
been the wish of God to have given longer life. But 
to North Carolina, the death of Dr. Mclver seems 
beyond measure a loss. His life was the State's. His 
work was for the people, and given for the upbuild- 
ing, uplifting, and splendid advancement of his fel- 
lows. No citizen stood closer to the homes in North 
Carolina, for it was through his mighty work, that 
woman's work, her education and a juster and clearer 
knowledge of her value and worth were developed 
and brought forth. In such a life as has just passed 
beyond, there is no standard of measurement, that man 

49 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



can employ. Only by the great scales of the Almighty 
can the computation be made. Man mourns, saying 
the loss is irreparable. Yet there is no loss. The 
State, the world have been rich gainers, through such 
a life, genius for good as it was, endowed for work 
as it was. But there must be grief, deep and poignant. 
There must be tears throughout North Carolina, for the 
sorrow is not of a household, not of a single city, but 
of a great people. The testimony of good cannot be 
limited to a few. He was the friend of all, and his 
help was always extended, free, sincere and generous. 
It is this spirit of fellowship which endeared Doctor 
Mclver to all, and so today his friends (and every 
one who knew him was his friend) mourn their loss 
as one family. But his work lies not buried. The 
influences which he has started will find ready hands 
to hold up and carry forward. His monument will be 
in the hearts of all, and his work visible throughout 
the coming years. His memory will be a sacred one 
to every North Carolinian. 

From N. C. Journal of Education 

"In the midst of life we are in death." The force 
of this truth was never brought closer home to the 
hearts of us all than when the news of the sudden 
death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver flashed over the wires 
on the afternoon of September the seventeenth. 

In his death the State mourns a citizen, worthy in 
the truest sense of that word, for his was a life 

50 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



devoted to public service of whatever kind. Nor is 
his loss confined to his dear "Old North State," for 
he was easily a national figure in the educational 
world. 

The State can ill afford to lose him. His boundless 
energy, his zeal, his earnestness of purpose, his true 
patriotism, his love of and loyalty to her interests, 
made for him a place in the life of the State impossi- 
ble to be filled. 

Especially will the cause of public education, 
whether in the state or nation, have reason to mourn 
a leader gone. Dr. Mclver's work as an educator will 
serve as an everlasting memorial to him. During his 
twenty-five years of active work in the teaching world 
he has been moulding educational thought in the 
State and, when the history of the great educational 
revival in North Carolina comes to be written, his 
name will stand foremost among the promoters of the 
movement for the education of all the people. He was 
truly an "educational statesman," as Dr. Lyman 
Abbott so aptly said of him. He was the first to see 
that the pivotal point in our educational system is the 
training of the women of our State for educational 
service, and with untiring zeal and devotion to his 
ideal, he kept it before the people until they were con- 
vinced of the soundness of his principle. The State 
Normal and Industrial College is his specific work and 
will stand as a monument to his high devotion to an 
idea and an ideal. The hundreds of young women 
who have come in touch with him there and who will 



51 



CHARLES DUNCAN MclVEE 



still come in touch with his spirit of service, will 
rise up and call him "blessed" who, more than any 
other, was instrumental in opening to them such 
opportunities for training and development as are 
given at this noble institution. The State has felt 
the influence of his work as "hundreds of teachers 
have caught from his presence a spirit that has sent 
them to their trying work, from the college recitation 
room to the humble log cabin school house in the back- 
woods, with hearts afire and souls inspired to render 
great service to their country and to humanity, car- 
ing naught for the vast personal sacrifices frequently 
involved. 

From Asheville Citizen 

North Carolina is peculiarly unfortunate in that 
many of her valuable sons are being called away 
within a short time of each other. In the natural 
course of events we can of course expect that sooner 
or later some great brain will cease to work, and the 
cords of some noble heart will snap asunder. Under 
such circumstances the blow falls with less poignancy, 
but when a light of the world is suddenly extinguished 
ere its mission is fulfilled, it is hard for the ordinary 
mortal to know why and wherefore such catastrophes 
must befall us. Charles D. Mclver, President of the 
North Carolina . Normal and Industrial College, at 
Greensboro, was suddenly taken away yesterday. This 
morning the State is poorer, much poorer, because 
there are few hands capable of taking up the work 

52 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



he had not fully completed. There are few tongues 
in North Carolina, if in the entire South, which will 
plead the cause of education for women with the same 
burning eloquence that Dr. Mclver proclaimed it. 
Standing for the elevation of womanhood by means 
of proper training and environments, he had the ear 
of the educational forces of the nation, and many Were 
the flattering offers which came to him from promi- 
nent institutions in distant states. But his heart had 
taken root in the soil of the Old North State, and his 
love remained true to the great Institution which grew 
up under his hands. The Citizen has pleasant recol- 
lections of a visit from Dr. Mclver a short time ago, 
and on that occasion we were deeply impressed with 
the earnestness and enthusiasm of the great educator. 
One portion of his conversation we distinctly remem- 
ber. Reviewing his historic fight in the legislature of 
1891 he said : ' ' Our State never made a better invest- 
ment than the annual appropriation which makes it 
possible to furnish its daughters the very best quality 
of education at a small cost to the individual. ' ' Well 
did the deceased feel that in securing exceptional 
educational facilities for young women he was paving 
the way for a better generation, for he believed that 
the elevation of womanhood meant the elevation of 
the race. "When you have good mothers," he said 
to The Citizen, ' ' you have a good nation. ' ' No greater 
truth was ever spoken. We know that it was Dr. 
Mclver 's wish that the State Normal and Industrial 
College should at some time be known as the "North 



53 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Carolina College for Women," and it would be a fit- 
ting tribute to the memory of the great and good man 
to follow out his wishes. Requiescat in pace. 

From Durham Sun 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal and Industrial College, which 
occurred on the Bryan special train yesterday after- 
noon after leaving Durham, is heard of with regret 
by the people from one end of North Carolina to the 
other. The State, the Normal and Industrial College 
and the cause of education in the South have suffered 
a well nigh irreparable loss. Dr. Mclver was the best, 
of Southern manhood. He was a man of profound 
faith, unconquerable courage, and unlimited capacity 
for work, with an electric personality, and possessed 
of a brain of great intellectual power. His memory 
will be long cherished, for he has left behind him a 
splendid and glorious record. 

From Charity and Children, Thomasville 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver Monday after- 
noon on the Bryan train, between Durham and 
Greensboro, shocked the State, for his name is a house- 
hold word among our people. Mr. Bryan spoke the 
truth when he said, "I had rather, a thousand times, 
leave the world what Dr. Mclver has left it than to 
leave John D. Rockefeller's millions." Indeed, one 

54 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



such man as Charles D. Mclver is worth all the mil- 
lionaires of Wall Street. He loved North Carolina 
and consecrated all his great powers to her service. 
He was among the foremost educators of the United 
States and we mourn his untimely death. 

From Kinston Free Press 

In the death of President Charles D. Mclver, of 
the State Normal and Industrial College, North Caro- 
lina sustains a loss that is almost irreparable. Dr. 
Mclver was a man well equipped, vigorous and full 
of energy. He had a sublime faith in the destiny of 
his State, and his influence in guiding it along the way 
of educational progress was one of the most potent 
forces for good that has ever been exerted in our 
midst. Thousands of young women, throughout our 
State and Southland, will, among others, grieve over 
his untimely death. He conceived the idea that the 
best and surest way to elevate the State and develop 
it was to train the young women of the land, and 
this task he entered upon with all the earnestness of 
his big, manly soul. He worked nobly in his chosen 
field, and the impetus his life and labor gave to our 
educational development will eventually place it high 
in the sisterhood of States. Not only North Carolina, 
but the whole South experiences a loss when men of 
Dr. Mclver 's calibre are called to lay down their work 
and pass into the great beyond. 



55 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



From Webster's Weekly, Beidsville 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, Presi- 
dent of the State Normal and Industrial College, has 
cast a gloom over the whole State. Nothing could be 
more pathetic than the circumstances under which the 
sad event occurred. He was one of the committee of 
distinguished citizens who formed the escort to Mr. 
Bryan from Greensboro to Baleigh, and entered 
heartily into the spirit of the occasion, being a personal 
friend and warm admirer of the great Nebraskam 
and upon the return trip home was stricken with 
apoplexy, dying suddenly. So sudden and unexpected 
was the summons that strong men lost control of them- 
selves and gave way to grief, and Mr. Bryan wept as 
if he had lost one bound to him by ties of blood as well 
as friendship. Greensboro was overwhelmed by the 
sad bereavement, and when the train bearing the 
Bryan party arrived in the city what would under 
different circumstances have been an ovation to the 
most popular leader in the country, was turned into 
a silent demonstration of respect for the mortal 
remains of Greensboro's most useful citizen. Such 
a spectacle has never been witnessed in North Carolina 
before. Dr. Mclver was easily the most successful and 
popular educator of his generation in this State. The 
State Normal and Industrial College owes its existence 
to him more than to any other man. What a noble man 
he was ! How broad were his sympathies and how 
exalted his ideals! Cut down in the prime of man- 

56 






CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



hood, when the State needed him most — How sad! 
The office he has occupied since the establishment of 
the State Normal and Industrial College may be filled 
by another, but his place in the confidence and affec- 
tion of the people will not be filled for years to come. 
The Weekly offers it heartfelt sympathy to the stricken 
family. He was one of this paper's truest and best 
friends. 

From Lexington Dispatch 

The State's loss in the death of Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver cannot be measured. He was a most useful 
man, big-brained, big-hearted, thoroughly in love with 
his great work and a true son of North Carolina. 
Tempted by many times the salary he received as Presi- 
dent of the Normal and Industrial College, rather 
than leave that Institution and his work, he refused, 
and labored on for the education of the girls of this 
State. Scores and hundreds of women who graduated 
at this College, thoroughly equipped for their life- 
work, will render the best testimonial of Dr. Mclver 's 
greatness and his goodness. By his death North Caro- 
lina is hit hard, and our own personal regret cannot 
be put in words. 

From Charlotte Chronicle 

North Carolina had no more loyal son than Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, whose death occurred suddenly on 
the Bryan special train. On every occasion where 

57 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



there was to be singing at the State Normal and 
Industrial College, or any occasion when the exer- 
cises were in his hands, the Old North State would be 
the first number on the program. He was devoted to 
the cause of education and gave his whole thought and 
all his energies to the cause. The State Normal and 
Industrial College is his monument. It was a small 
and weak institution when he took charge. He leaves 
it one of the most successful and best equipped edu- 
cational institutions in the entire country. He did 
not permit it to languish for a day, but was ever alert 
to its needs and in seeing that these were supplied. 
The education of young men and young women was 
his life work and well was it performed. The cause 
of education has sustained a great loss. The State 
has lost a son who has reflected honor and credit upon 
its name. 

From Winston Sentinel 

In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver this State 
loses one of its most useful men. Until he took hold 
of woman's education in this State there was prac- 
tically no institution under state control having for 
its object normal training for women. Today the 
State Normal and Industrial College is a monument 
to his zeal and success in the education of women. In 
his death the cause of education in this State has 
suffered a serious blow. Dr. Mclver was known as 
a prominent educator throughout the country. Only 
a year ago he came within a few votes of being elected 

58 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



President of the National Educational Association. 
He was recognized as an authority on woman's educa- 
tion. The people of Winston-Salem are especially 
grieved over Dr. Mclver 's death. He was formerly 
a resident of this city, being connected with the pub- 
lic schools here, and while in this city won hosts of 
friends who deeply deplore his death. Death at any 
time is sad, but in the case of a man just in his prime 
who is doing a great work it is especially unfortunate. 

From Mocksville Courier 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal and Industrial College, which 
occurred on the Bryan special, Monday, is a calamity 
not only to North Carolina, but to the entire South. 
Dr. Mclver was not only North Carolina's leading 
educator, but was one of her most progressive citi- 
zens in every respect. A great and good man has been 
snatched from us in the very prime of a useful career, 
and the whole State weeps beside his bier. 

From Raleigh Times 

North Carolina has lost in the death of Dr. Charles 
D. Mclver a man it could ill afford to lose, a man who 
was giving a strong life, a virile personality and an 
indomitable energy to the cause of education. And 
he was in the prime of his useful life, with the reason- 
able expectation of many years of growing power, for 

59 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



such a man could grow with the years. Dr. Mclver was 
one of those men who made himself of service wherever 
he found himself. Only yesterday morning on the plat- 
form at Greensboro, after the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. 
Bryan, Dr. Mclver volunteered to look after their bag- 
gage while they were at the hotel at breakfast, and 
make sure that the valises were put on the special 
without any loss of time. It was a little thing, but 
it showed the manner of man he was. In all his busy 
life Dr. Mclver always took time for a pleasant word 
to every acquaintance he saw, and he always saw them 
and never forgot anybody. 

From North Carolina Baptist, Fayetteville 

Charles D. Mclver is dead. The State suffered a 
shock of great sorrow on Monday afternoon when the 
news was passed from man to man that Charles D. 
Mclver had died on the Bryan train on its way from 
Raleigh to Greensboro. He was born in Moore 
County, educated at the University, and became Presi- 
dent of the State Normal and Industrial College in 
Greensboro in 1892. His work there has been most 
successful. In almost every town and village of the 
State there are girls trained by this far-seeing and 
much beloved educator. The State has suffered a 
great loss. Dr. Mclver was a splendid representative 
of the Old North State away from home and its faith- 
ful servant at home. The Editor of the Baptist feels 
the loss as a personal one. 

60 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From Salisbury Post 

The whole State is the loser in the death of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, who expired on the Bryan special 
yesterday afternoon. Dr. Mclver gave his whole 
heart to the cause of education and to him more than 
any other one man may be credited the great educa- 
tional awakening that has come upon this State dur- 
ing the past ten years. He was not content with 
pedagogy. He originated ideas and caused men to 
follow his lead. He cherished no political ambition, 
but his influence with legislatures in behalf of educa- 
tion marked the turning point in the State's interest 
in the intellectual development of its children. Higher 
education claimed his immediate attention, but the 
public school was nearest his heart and he gave his 
best talent to its expansion in his native State. North 
Carolina has lost a son of big brain, big heart and 
unfailing loyalty. 

From Concord Tribune 

All North Carolina is shocked today by the news of 
Dr. Mclver 's death. He represented the highest and 
strongest type of Southern manhood, had made a 
national reputation and was to his native State a great 
honor and an exceedingly useful citizen. His sudden 
taking away is shocking indeed. Young and vigorous, 
we can scarcely believe that he was to face such an 
unexpected taking away. In his brief career Dr. 
Mclver had done one of the highest and best works in 

61 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



the State. The great school over which he presided 
was a monument to his energies and master intelli- 
gence. He loved North Carolina, and delighted in a 
great work for her advancement. His place will be 
hard to fill, though another will take up his work 
and carry it on in the spirit of his endeavors. Surely 
it is well that he lived, true that he lived to great 
good and died in the midst of a noble career. 

From The Biblical Recorder, Raleigh 

The sudden death of Charles D. Mclver, LL.D., 
President of the State Normal College, on September 
17th, shocked the entire Commonwealth, and, we have 
no doubt, there was a sense of public loss and personal 
bereavement throughout American educational circles ; 
for in recent years Dr. Mclver had added to his 
achievements for education in North Carolina an 
enviable fame and influence beyond our State. The 
State Normal College is his monument. But his ser- 
vices in the cause of public education in town and in 
country are not to be forgotten. Nor will the 
teachers of North Carolina forget the one who has 
done so much to advance their profession. No man 
in his generation has surpassed Dr. Mclver in serving 
North Carolina. His death in the very prime of life 
is most untimely. 

From Everything, Greensboro 

When the South lost, by death, Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver, she lost her most valuable citizen. Measured 

62 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



by what he accomplished — not for himself, but for 
the South — he achieved more than any other citizen 
living today. He was an educator — he builded the 
Normal School at Greensboro and planted school 
houses all over the South. He was strong — he did 
things — and while it is proper to build to his memory 
a monument of bronze — this will be done — he builded 
a monument that will endure as long as the language 
is spoken. He insisted that future mothers should 
be educated — that that meant a higher education all 
around. He depended on no one but himself to accom- 
plish his ends — he went through forests of ignorance 
and opposition and cleared the way. He died too 
young — just forty-six — but his foot prints are on the 
sands of time. They will never be effaced. Now 
that his busy brain is at rest — his voice stilled — those 
who knew him as a man recognize that a giant has 
gone from among them. The great Athenian philoso- 
pher when asked by the Lydian King who was the 
happiest among them, said no man should be 
pronounced happy until he was dead. May happiness 
be forever his. 

From Winston-Salem Journal 

The news of the death of this great North Carolina 
educator will bring sadness to the hearts of our people 
regardless of race or of religious or political persua- 
sion. The women of North Carolina have lost their 
ablest champion, the cause of education one of its 

63 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



most progressive leaders, and all of us the warm 
friendship of one whose heart and whose intellect 
was dedicated to the good he could do us. * * * 
Today the State Normal and Industrial College is a 
monument to his zeal and success in the education of 

* 4f, jt .v. m. «m, Jt 

. ;;. ,, ■ ■ r— „ ' ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

No institution in the South has commanded the atten- 
tion of the country to a greater degree than has 
this institution under the presidency of this able 
and forceful man. To its upbuilding he has 
devoted the best years of an industrious and coura- 
geous life. The women of North Carolina owe it to 
themselves to perpetuate his memory by the erection 
of a handsome memorial. 

The people of Winston-Salem especially feel deeply 
this affliction. It was among them he spent his early 
days as an educator. Here he formed fast friendships 
that death will not sever. Here he wedded in 1885, 
Miss Lula V. Martin, at that time a teacher in the 
city schools, who has been ever interested in the 
realization of his fondest hopes. 

Charles Mclver is dead ! Can we realize it ? Only 
yesterday so strong and so enthusiastic ; now his work 
is done. And it was a work that will live after him 
and be an example to other young men whose advan- 
tages in life are small. He was truly the greatest 
Carolinian who ever wore that great Scotch name. 



64 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



From The Duplin Journal 



Dr. Charles D. Mdver, President of the State 
Normal College, at Greensboro, died suddenly Mon- 
day evening. His death casts a gloom over the whole 
State and saddens the heart of all its people. His 
was indeed the great educational spirit of the State, 
particularly devoted to the young women of the State. 
The State Normal College was established largely 
through his efforts and as its life-long President he 
has developed it to its present high standard, which 
is a magnificent monument to his educational zeal and 
great executive ability. His death is an irreparable 
loss to the State. * * * The alumnae in 
our vicinity are overwhelmed with the loss of their 
College President. Dr. Mclver is deservedly held 
by them as the State's greatest benefactor, inasmuch 
as he was the first North Carolinian to make any real 
provision for the education of women. The work 
he has started and established will live on to glorify 
the man who gave his life to the highest promotion 
and development of the womanhood of this grand 
old North State. Just forty-six years, but what a work 
accomplished ! The seeds sown will continue to germi- 
nate while the inspiration of his zeal and personality 
will live in the hearts of every Normalite and redound 
for good throughout all the years to come. It is some- 
thing to have known such a worker — a character with 
the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand 
up to all the world and say: "This was a man." 

65 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



May another like him take his place in the educa- 
tional work of the young women of the State, and train 
them to the noblest and highest ideals of life. 

From the Daily Reflector, Greenville 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver was a 
severe blow and serious loss to North Carolina. He 
was one of the State's best citizens and foremost 
among the educators of the South. His place as presi- 
dent of the Normal and Industrial College, in which 
he has done such excellent service for the women of 
the State, will be hard to fill. 

From The Orphans ' Friend and Masonic Journal, 

Oxford 

Dr. Mclver was a man with a mission, which he 
clearly conceived and faithfully fulfilled. He was a 
wise, an enthusiastic, an indefatigable leader in the 
education of young women and in every department 
of educational endeavor. While his interest centered 
in the work to him specially committed, to him 
divinely appointed, he gave to other helpful agencies 
and forces encouragement and active co-operation. 
He was indeed an efficient toiler. 

The enterprise to which he devoted so much of his 
time, his means, his talents, for which he laid down 
his life, will continue to grow. 

The life of Charles D. Mclver will be an inspiration 

to many to serve God and man more zealously day by 

day. 

66 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Who can measure the mighty influence of a man 
allied with God in His great work for mankind? 
Incalculable is the power for good of the life of our 
lamented friend and brother. * * * * 

As President of the State Normal College, as an 
earnest and active advocate of the new education, 
there is no estimating his service to the State. Only 
the records above will reveal how many lives he has 
touched and blessed. He is known abroad as a broad- 
minded man and educational leader, but at home we 
call him friend. 

North Carolina has suffered a grievous loss in the 
death of Dr. Mclver, but even greater is her pride, 
that in her borders such a man has lived. 



"Because this man is dead, I thank my God 
That he once lived to glorify earth 's load. ' ' 



From The Landmark, Statesville 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver Monday 
at the early age of forty-six removed from this earthly 
existence one who had probably accomplished more 
for the intellectual life of the State in the past twenty 
years than any other man in it. He was not only a 
man of great ability, but he was a man of action, 
one who brought things to pass. He was an enthu- 
siast, and his enthusiasm was directed by executive 
ability which accomplished results. Completing his 
education he began to teach. He soon saw and felt 
the need of better educational advantages for the 

67 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



young women of the State. The State had done much 
for the boys, but nothing for the girls. Realizing the 
inestimable value of an educated womanhood to the 
citizenship of the State, Dr. Mclver set about to 
accomplish results, and the State Normal and Indus- 
trial College at Greensboro stands as an everlasting 
monument of his work. In the years that are past 
and in the years to come the thousands of girls who 
have been and who will be educated in that college, 
and the thousands who will be benefited directly and 
indirectly through the young women who are educated 
there, will hold in grateful memory the man who was 
chiefly instrumental in establishing that Institution. 
It is unnecesary to say that the loss of such a man 
to the State is very great. Others will take his place 
and the work will go on, but it is a cause for sincere 
regret that the State and this generation is deprived 
of the invaluable services of Dr. Mclver. He had 
accomplished a great work while yet a young man, 
a work that will endure and inure to the great bene- 
fit of the State for years to come. He had earned the 
rest that is now his and the plaudit well done ! But 
men of his type are rare — they are all too few; and 
while those near and dear to him have suffered the 
great loss of husband and father, the State has 
suffered the loss of a loyal and devoted son. He not 
only strove to advance the cause of education and 
through this means to uplift his people, but he also 
strove earnestly to elevate the profession of teaching 



68 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



to its proper plane, and the teachers of the State have 
lost their warmest defender and advocate in the death 
of Dr. Mclver. 

From Maxton Blade 

Dr. Mclver was one of the foremost educators in 
the South. A man of large experience, a fine scholar 
and a deep and accurate thinker, he was largely the 
moving spirit in the establishment of the State Normal 
College for young women at Greensboro. He has been 
President of that Institution since its establishment, 
and his work there has brought splendid results. He 
made himself known as an absolutely unbiased cham- 
pion, a man who meant to the public not party nor 
politics, but the one great cause he lived for. Thus 
he antagonized none, and by arraying himself on 
neither side of any question, did not bring any one 
into opposition with him. Able as he might have 
been to meet and overcome in the political battlefield, 
he was able to do an even greater thing — to renounce 
entirely the fascination of the contest, man against 
man, that he might turn no one against the ideal he 
worshipped. 

From The Christian Sun, Raleigh 

The cause of education not only in North Carolina, 
but in the whole country, suffered an irreparable loss 
in the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver. That man did 
not live in our day who has done so much for the 

69 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



cause of education, enlightenment, and the uplifting 
of the masses as Dr. Mclver. While teaching at 
Raleigh he worked industriously with legislators in 
the endeavor to have established in North Carolina a 
school for women. But not until he had canvassed 
the entire State, laboring and speaking in every 
county until 1891, did he bring the Legislature to 
see and realize the need of a State institution for the 
training of young women. When the College was 
created in 1892 Dr. Mclver was made its first Presi- 
dent and in that position remained till his untimely 
death. Since Dr. Mclver 's great work for educating 
women began the cause in the State has swept trium- 
phantly on and he lived to see 3,000 women educated 
because he fought for it. His clarion note, now 
familiar to us all was: 

"When a man is educated it is simply one more taken 
from the list of ignorance, but in the education of a woman 
the whole family is taught, for she will pass on what she 
has learned to her children. The education of one woman 
is far more important for the world's advancement than that 
of one man." 

Not only in the South, but in the North as well, 
was Dr. Mclver regarded as a leader in education. He 
persistently refused to be turned aside from his life's 
work of educating women to enter politics or accept 
official positions. He had an idea, and battled most 
nobly to maintain it. He has built a monument for 
himself, noble, inspiring, grand, that will not perish. 

A strange thing took place when the train bearing 

70 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Dr. Mclver's body and Hon. W. J. Bryan arrived in 
Greensboro. Thousands had gathered to hear a polit- 
ical speech. Instead of a partisan plea or a political 
speech Mr. Bryan spoke to the people of the great 
life and labors of Dr. Mclver. The audience was 
melted to tears and the political gathering was turned 
into a house of mourning. Mr. Bryan spoke from his 
heart, for he and Dr. Mclver had been close friends 
for many years, and the great throng hung upon 
words made eloquent by sorrow and mourning. 

From Raleigh Christian Advocate 

This noted educator died suddenly on the train near 
Durham on last Monday afternoon, while en route to 
Greensboro, his home. He had attended in the morn- 
ing the Bryan speaking in Raleigh, and was at the 
time a member of the Bryan traveling party. His 
death has occasioned grief throughout the whole State. 
He was one of the State's first citizens. He was 
known throughout the whole Union as one of the most 
prominent educational spirits of the South. He came 
from a farm, and by his resolution, studiousness and 
unflagging energy he has impressed himself on the 
life of the whole South. The State Normal and 
Industrial College at Greensboro is one of his endur- 
ing monuments. 



71 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



From The News, Chapel Hill 

Mr. Bryan's trip from Durham to Greensboro was 
indeed a sad one. Soon after leaving, Dr. Charles 
D. Mclver died while on board the special train 
just before reaching Hillsboro. His death was a shock 
to his numerous friends here. The loss to the State 
is great. As an educator he went a step further than 
all the rest of the great men of the State. He was 
the founder of the greatest institution in the State 
for the education of women, the State Normal College. 
His sudden and untimely departure is widely 
mourned. 

From the Union Republican, Winston 

As a citizen and an educator, the death of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver will be long and deeply felt. His 
work was State wide and will long survive. On the 
pages of history his name will be inscribed among 
those of Dr. Calvin H. Wiley and others, whose devo- 
tion to the educational interests of North Carolina 
was the main spring of their very life. For them 
there was no sacrifice too great or labor too arduous. 
Their work was nobly done and the results and high 
standing of our public and normal school interests 
stand today as a tribute to their memory. 

From The Trinity Chronicle 

Through the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, 
President of the State Normal College, North Carolina 

72 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



has lost one of the foremost of her already too few 
leaders in education, a loss that is all the more deeply 
felt inasmuch as there was none who labored just as 
he did in the conquest against the hosts of ignorance. 
He early saw that the women of the State were being 
discriminated against in the matter of education, and 
thenceforth his entire life was devoted in their behalf, 
and the fruit of it is the present State Normal and 
Industrial College, with the hundreds of young women 
who have been sent therefrom to teach in the pub- 
lic schools of the State. His highest ideal was to edu- 
cate women, and nothing could turn him from that 
ideal. In business life, there were many tempting 
positions which he could have filled with much more 
glory and financial gain for himself, but all such 
allurements were refused that woman — who in the 
matter of education is more helpless than man, and 
therefore needs man's strong arm to aid her — might 
have a champion to fight for her. He was her knight, 
sworn in his heart to serve her and see that she was 
protected in her rights to all that is highest and most 
ennobling, and he was always faithful, strong and 
aggressive. The loss occasioned by his untimely tak- 
ing off cannot be estimated, not even surmised. 

As a token of the estimation in which he was held 
by Trinity College the national flag that floats on the 
campus was placed at half-mast last Tuesday. 



73 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



From The Warrenton Record 

Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the State 
Normal and Industrial College, at Greensboro, died 
suddenly Monday evening. In the death of Dr. 
Mclver the State loses one of its greatest and most 
useful citizens. He leaves The Normal and Industrial 
College as, a monument to his memory. 

From The Scottish Chief ,Maxton 

The only sad feature connected with the visit of 
W. J. Bryan to North Carolina was the death of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver. Dr. Mclver was a member of 
the reception committee. He was the personal friend 
of Mr. Bryan and first invited him to North Carolina 
twelve years ago to deliver the commencement address 
at the State Normal and Industrial College. 

Dr. Mclver was the foremost educator of North Caro- 
lina. It was he who developed to its present gigantic 
proportions the State Normal and Industrial College. 
He was offered positions paying two to four times as 
large a salary as the one he held, all of which he 
declined. His death is a great loss not only to the 
State but to the nation as well. 

From The Elm City Miner 

In the death of Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal and Industrial College at Greens- 
boro, the State loses one of its truly good, great 

74 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



men, one of its greatest educators and one of the 
greatest benefactors to Carolina womanhood. He 
died suddenly, ere his zenith had been reached, in 
the prime of his splendid manhood. All lament his 
death, bemoan the great loss that has come to our 
people and State, and thousands of hearts are now 
in tears. His life work has ended so far as it applies 
to the business affairs of life, but the lessons that he 
taught and the great influences that he exerted will 
go on in endless sweep, and the memory of his life will 
be embalmed in the affections of his countrymen and 
our womanhood through countless years. 

Ere the sod had fallen upon the casket that hides 
him from view forever a movement was inaugurated 
to cast in bronze the beloved form and face and thus, 
not only in the hearts of his countrymen and women, 
but in marble, perpetuate in ever-enduring form the 
memory of his noble life. 



From Durham Recorder 



In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver the State 
loses a good citizen, the cause of education its strong- 
est support, and the State Normal and Industrial Col- 
lege a President that will not be replaced soon. He 
was a man with ideas and he did not exploit them for 
other people to work out, but went to the plow himself 
that what he believed in might be put to the front, 
and he succeeded. His sudden death cast a gloom 
over the State that only time will lift. 

75 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



From The Progressive Farmer, Raleigh 

North Carolina and the whole South suffered an 
almost irreparable loss last week in the sudden death 
of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the State 
Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro. That 
Institution is his monument, while for the present 
general educational revival, the South owes as much 
to Dr. Mclver as to any other one man — perhaps 
more. Years ago he came to believe with all his soul 
in the need of better facilities for the education of 
women, and he worked until the whole State caught 
his enthusiasm. "Educate a man," he declared, 
' ' and you have educated one person ; educate a mother 
and you educate a whole family." And the public 
schools had no more zealous friend than he. He had 
an ideal: the uplift of the Commonwealth through 
education, and he consecrated himself to educational 
progress, and rejected business offers of four times 
his salary in order that he might continue in the work 
he loved so whole-heartedly. * * * He 
believed in doing things: "I'd rather be a what's 
what than a who's who," he declared. The State is 
richer for his life, poorer for his death, and she should 
rear a worthy monument to a man who certainly 
served her better than any politician of his generation. 



From The Roxboro Courier 

In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver the State 
sustains a great loss, and a place is made vacant that 

76 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



will be hard to fill. He has done a work for the 
uneducated girls of North Carolina that will last 
throughout generations. His whole life was in his 
work and the results accomplished by him in that 
work cannot be measured. It seems only a few years 
since he was going up and down our State urging our 
people to establish a great normal training school for 
our girls where the teachers for the public schools 
could get that education and training necessary to 
make successful women. Truly a great man has been 
taken — and just in the prime of manhood. 



From The Henderson Gold Leaf 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver is a distinct 
loss to the State and to the cause of education. It is, 
indeed, a public calamity. He had wrought a great 
work, and still in the prime and vigor of his power 
and usefulness — only about forty-six years old — it 
seemed as if his best achievements had not yet been 
accomplished. 

From The Caucasian 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, Presi- 
dent of the State Normal and Industrial College at 
Greensboro, was a great shock to the people of this 
State. He was one of the foremost educators, not only 
of the State but of the South. He was a prime mover 
in establishing the State Normal College at Greens- 
boro, and has made that Institution what it is today. 

77 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



In fact, he devoted his entire life to the cause of edu- 
cation, and while he has crossed the bar his life's 
work will live as a monument to his memory. 

From Tarboro Southerner 

In the death of Dr. Mclver, the State loses one of 
its greatest educators, who rendered valuable service 
in promoting the educational interests of the State. 
His heart was in educational work, and it will be diffi- 
cult to find a President to succeed him. 

Dr. Mclver 's sudden and untimely taking off will 
be mourned throughout the State. 

From The Smithfield Herald 

In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver the State 
has lost one of its most useful citizens. He has done 
more for the higher education of the girls of North 
Carolina than any other person in the State, and the 
Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro will ever 
stand as a monument to his earnestness and energy. 

From The Newton Enterprise 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal College, is a distinct loss to North 
Carolina. He devoted his talents and the enthusiasm 
of a very earnest and vigorous manhood to the advance- 
ment of education and especially the education of the 
North Carolina girls. He was only forty-six. His life 

78 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



was too short. But in it was accomplished great good. 
The great State College for girls is his monument. 

From The Catawba County News 

We make no apology for giving so much space in 
this issue to the death and record of Dr. Mclver. He 
has for twenty-five years preached the gospel of pub- 
lic education from the mountains to the sea. He has 
made an impression upon the State of North Carolina 
such as no other one man has made in his generation. 
Telegrams of sympathy were received from the leading 
educational institutions North and South. University 
Presidents, Presidents of Colleges, State Superin- 
tendents, State officials and men from all the voca- 
tions of life assembled to pay a tribute of respect to 
his memory at the funeral on Wednesday. 

He literally gave his life for the elevation and 
uplift of his own State. Other men have been induced 
to leave the State by flattering offers of money. These 
offers came to Dr. Mclver, but he turned a deaf ear 
to them all, and chose to suffer and sacrifice if need 
be for his own people. 

One of the great men of North Carolina has been 
taken away and the whole State will miss him. 

From The Scotland Neck Commonwealth 

President CD. Mclver, of the State Normal College, 
died Monday, September 17th. His death is an irrep- 

79 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



arable loss to the State. He was one of the most active 
and useful citizens in the State and one of the fore- 
most educators of the South. He had given his life 
to education and his best and strongest years to 
establishing and managing the great and useful insti- 
tution at Greensboro, over whose interests and destiny 
he had presided from its establishment. 

The State mourns the death of such a great and good 
man and labors under a loss that cannot be repaired. 
His work is his monument and it will bear eloquent 
tribute to his worth for all time to come. The people 
of his native State will long bless his memory and 
the people of many States share our sorrow at his 
sudden and untimely death. 

From The Mooresville Enterprise 

In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President 
of the State Normal and Industrial College, the State 
loses its foremost educator. His service to the cause 
of education, most especially that of young ladies, 
cannot be estimated. He was the originator and pio- 
neer, in North Carolina, of education for the poorer 
girls, and the College at Greensboro is his monument. 
Valiantly has he wrought along the lines of education 
and the fruits of his labors are to be seen on every 
hand. To the cause of education he devoted his life, 
and well was his work performed. Dr. Mclver always 
had a kind and cheerful word for all and in all 
his busy life always took time to speak to every 

80 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



acquaintance and he never forgot anyone. Truly a 
great man has fallen. 

From Gastonia News 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, 
President of the State Normal College, cast a gloom 
over the famous Bryan party, and the State will 
mourn as the people all over the State hear of this 
great man's death. He has done more for the educa- 
tion of women in North Carolina than any other man 
in it. * * * He made a campaign of the 
State in 1891-2 that resulted in the establishment of 
the State Normal College in 1892. Three thousand 
girls have been educated in this College and its influ- 
ence for good has been wonderful. Dr. Mclver gave 
his life to one deed — that of the education of the 
women of the State. He will go down in history as 
one of the truly great benefactors of his State. 

From The Elkin Enterprise 

In the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President 
of the State Normal and Industrial College at Greens- 
boro, North Carolina loses one of her foremost educa- 
tors. Not only the State but the entire country will 
mourn his sudden taking off. He was beloved by all 
and the man who attempts to fill his place will have 
an up-hill road to travel. "We doubt if there be one 
in the State equal to the occasion, as his whole soul 



81 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



was in the work. Dr. Mclver was forty-six years old. 
A great and good man has gone from us — peace to 
his ashes. 

From Presbyterian Standard 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal College, at Greensboro, N. C, is a 
loss to education that the South will feel for years. 
Dr. Mclver was a product of the soil ; a broad-minded 
Christian gentleman, a man of vision and willing to 
serve, who has led the Institute from its inception 
to a high place of public trust. 

From Beidsville Review 

Dr. Charles D. Mclver, the President of the North 
Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, is dead. 
This is an incalculable loss to the educational interests 
of the State. Dr. Mclver was a great and good man. He 
was in charge of the greatest work being done in North 
Carolina, and his heart was in his work. It was for this 
reason that the arduous duties of his great office were 
discharged with such marked success. The death of 
this man will be mourned by all citizens throughout 
the State; but the grief will be felt most keenly by 
the thousands of young women who regarded him as 
a personal friend and to whom he has been a source 
of inspiration and help in their efforts to secure an 
education and the training necessary for usefulness 
and success in life. H. A. Hayes. 

82 



CHARLES DUNCAN MclYEE 



From Hertford Herald, Ahoskie 

For two weeks we have devoted much space to pub- 
lishing comments on the life and character of the late 
Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, who at the time of his 
death was the foremost citizen of North Carolina. 
It is well for our people, especially the young, to 
read of the noble life of this great man who has made 
the State richer and the people happier by his life. 

From Waynesville Courier 

In the death of Dr. Charles Mclver, North Carolina 
has lost one of her best citizens and the cause of 
education has lost one of its greatest and best leaders. 

As a result of his efforts with manv 
others, we now have at Greensboro a State School for 
girls, the influence of which is felt all over our grand 
old Commonwealth. From the first till his death Dr. 
Mclver was the President of our great Normal and 
Industrial College at Greensboro. The fact is he 
was almost the Institution itself. It is to be hoped 
that another of great skill in running the College 
will be found, but certainly it will be hard to fill 
the place with another of Dr. Mclver 's ability and 
tact. 

Dr. Mclver was not only well known in our State 
but he was well known in educational gatherings 
both north and south, where he was frequently invited 
to make educational addresses. At annual meetings 

83 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



of county superintendents Dr. Mclver was one of 
us not in office but in interest and sympathy in 
every way to forward the cause of education in every 
section of our State. 

The teachers of our county will long remember 
the fine address he made at the close of our sum- 
mer Institute at Clyde. Every one went away encour- 
aged by the talks made by our Superintendent of 
Public Instruction and the lamented Dr. Mclver 
who will meet with us on earth no more. He was 
a Christian gentleman and a devoted member of 
the Presbyterian Church. 

It was a great privilege that he fell at his post of 
duty. R. A. Sentelle, 

County Superintendent. 

From The News Reporter, Whiteville 

One of the first things that caught my eyes as I 
picked up my paper this morning was the announce- 
ment of the death of that great and good man, Dr. 
Charles Duncan Mclver. Imagine my feelings when 
I realized that this man was gone to return no more. 
What a loss ! What an incalculable loss ! The cause 
of education in North Carolina loses one of its strong- 
est and most substantial friends. Dr. Mclver loved 
North Carolina and North Carolina loved Dr. Mclver. 
We knew him personally and in his death we feel a 
personal loss. How we will miss him in our educa- 
tional meetings ! 

84 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



We could always count on his presence, his sympa- 
thy, and his help. The State Normal College at Greens- 
boro is sorely bereaved. For about fourteen years he 
has stood at the head of this institution influencing and 
endearing himself to those who are the character 
builders in our beloved State. All his students speak 
so tenderly and affectionately of him, but he isi 
gone and we bow in humble submission to the will of 
Him who doeth all things well. He died young, at 
the age of forty-six, but while he lived he worked. No 
one kept busier. May his mantle fall on worthy 
shoulders. F. T. Wooten, 

County Superintendent. 



From Monroe Journal 



There is a movement on foot to build a monument to 
Dr. Mclver, in the shape of a bronze statue at the 
College. No monument could be more appropriate, 
more deserved. Yet Dr. Mclver never made any 
money. It has been said that a great man has not 
the time to make money. Dr. Mclver was offered 
several times his salary to do work in a business 
way. Suppose he had taken it? A salary of ten 
thousand dollars a year would have permitted him to 
lay up money and to have soon got a start such that 
with his ability he could have become a rich man 
as the term goes down here. But what would have 
become of the work he was doing for others? What 
about the hundreds of people he was inspiring to do 

85 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYEE 



greater things? What about the numberless women 
whose careers he was touching to bless? What about 
the six hundred young women who last week gathered 
as students at the Normal College? What about 
the whole vast influence his life and work was exert- 
ing in behalf of the cause of education, in the place 
where there are fewest friends and most help needed ? 
No, a thousand times no! He had no time to make 
money for himself. 

From The Polk County Neivs 

In the sudden death recently of Dr. Charles D. 
Mdver, President of the State Normal and Indus- 
trial College at Greensboro, the educational interest 
of the State loses one of its most valued members. 
It is said no man is indispensable, but it will indeed 
be hard to find a man who can fill such a position with 
the ability and distinction of the late President. 

From Daily Industrial News 

It would be difficult to know where struck deepest 
the root of Dr. Mdver 's greatness. Which was 
the greatest? The man in whose brain was born 
the idea of education for the women of North Caro- 
lina, and who dreamed of a college where they 
might come and learn; the man who, against heavy 
odds, was the chief in bringing about the realization 
of the ideal ; the man who, once the institution was an 

86 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



established fact, so guided it through adversity that 
its very woes were made seeds for future greatness ; 
the man whose wisdom and love were the inspiration 
of every girl who entered the college to leave it a 
woman, with his influence a part of her womanhood? 
Dreamer, promoter, executive, teacher ? — which ? 

Certainly, on the country at large comes the loss 
of his intellect, for he was a prominent factor in the 
educational movement, which is really the chariot 
of progress, and to which belongs the honor of carry- 
ing the country 's flag in the field of the nations. 

Certainly to the Old North State comes home the 
most closely the loss of his marvelous executive ability, 
for he assembled the scattered and unorganized forces 
of education, and made eager soldiers out of indiffer- 
ent and even antagonistic conscripts, taking from the 
Old North State the reproach of having sent no knight 
into the educational field to fight the cause of its 
women. 

But the loss of the wise and loving teacher falls 
most bitterly on the students he led and inspired, 
on the women of North Carolina who have, because 
of him, been active powers for good instead of pas- 
sively accepting the world's good. There is a bitterer 
loss still to those who would have come under his 
influence had he lived, and who must do without it, 
but these cannot, of necessity, realize that loss. 

In Dr. Mclver was embodied the truest type of 
patriot. He loved his country well enough to dedi- 



87 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



cate himself to her advancement, rather than to his 
own gain. He loved his country as his eye, but the 
apple of his eye was one southern spot in it — the 
Old North State. With him her worship was a 
passion. 

At the last commencement exercises of the College 
it was notable that repeatedly throughout the final 
day he asked for the singing of that ringing melody, 
"The Old North State." Not often enough could his 
ears drink in its notes ; not often enough could he use 
it as a vehicle to translate into the very souls of the 
departing graduates his own spirit of true patriotism 
that lived by the giving of service. 

But there was one quality in Dr. Mclver not yet 
mentioned which was nearer than any other to the 
hand of the God that made him. One phrase in scrip- 
ture describes it most perfectly, and is, more than 
anything that has been said of him, his perfect 
praise — 

"And the common people heard him gladly." 

Few are the men of intellect who can speak to 
"the common people." Theirs is a different world, 
a different tongue, and one of the tragedies of the 
world is that they, whose mission it is to teach the 
world, should speak and not be understood. But 
this man, knowing the language of that mental world, 
knew also how to translate it to the people he taught, 
and more than that, he knew how to awake in their 
hearts the love for the new language and the desire 



88 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



to attune their tongues to its melody. He could 
first implant the longing for the seed, and then plant 
the seed. 

Idealist, promoter, leader, teacher, speaker to "the 
common people," surely Charles Mclver was one 
whom God when He made him, marked with the 
title "Man." 



From The Deaf Carolinian, Morganton 

The death of no one within the borders of the 
Old North State has so wrung the hearts of our 
people or caused more universal grief than that of 
Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver. 

A chord of sorrow and sympathy has been touched 
which will vibrate so long as the monuments of 
character which he has erected in the lives of the 
young women of our State shall remain. ' ' His works 
do follow him," and the influence of them will go on 
forever. 

Not only the inner circle of his friends and the 
College he founded — into which he breathed his 
mighty spirit — mourn for him, but there is an outer 
circle who know him only by reputation: other col- 
leges and schools grieve and feel their loss most keenly. 

How gratefully and pleasantly we recall the influ- 
ence of his two or three visits to our School and his 
interest in us ! Especially do we recall his presence 
here a year ago, when he left New York, where he 
was giving a series of lectures, that he might speak 

89 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



to the National Convention of Instructors of the 
Deaf then holding its sessions in our Institution. 
Such an influence did his speech make upon this great 
Convention that it called forth from all over the 
Union the most pronounced encomiums. 

Taken away with full armor on, he must feel won- 
drously at home today with his Lord. 

Mrs. L. A. Winston. 

From The South Atlantic Quarterly, October, 1906 

While we go on in our routine in life, we judge 
men by many standards — whether they are successful 
and are doing their tasks well, or are of service to 
their fellows and to society; or are interesting and 
helpful companions ; or are courageous. Almost every 
rule that we have is more or less modified by the 
personality of the man to whom it is applied. We 
even suspend judgment on one another — waiting to 
see how each of us continues to do his task or to live 
his life. 

But when death startles us and cuts a career short 
and we must measure the dead man once for all 
we find ourselves asking first of all the one question, 
how true and helpful he was to his friends, to his 
community and to human kind ; for that is the highest 
test after all. 

Apply that test to Dr. Charles D. Mclver and he 
measures so large — he reaches, the full proportions 
of a great nature. 

90 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



I suppose that he was regarded as a close personal 
friend by more men and women, and he had the 
intimate confidence of more men and women, than 
any other man in North Carolina. Whoever knew 
him came close to him. The man who was most 
engrossed and the slow fellow who had merely dull 
and intermittent impulses to be of some use in the 
world — each alike counted him a friend. He was a 
brother to every human creature. When you or I 
say, then, that we have lost one of our best friends, 
we are but two of a great host of men and women 
who are saying the same thing. Now this genius for 
helpfulness is a quality of only very great natures. 

Think, too, of the cheerfulness and of the hope- 
fulness of the man ! That also is a mark of his great 
nature. His beaming, buoyant personality was a form 
of courage that never flagged; it was a constant 
inspiration to everybody whom it reached, and it 
reached far. 

At Greensboro, on the day when he was buried, 
there were men prominent in educational work from 
Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia 
and New York, who, through their tears, fell to telling 
humorous anecdotes that illustrated his unbounded 
cheerfulness and kindliness. Not one could have 
recalled, if he had tried, a single bitter thing that he 
had said or a single unworthy act that he had done. 
They called him affectionately, " Charles" or "Mac" 
— these leaders in educational work. What tribute 
to a man that his friends should laugh and weep at 

91 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



once as they mourned his loss — what a touching 
evidence that he touched the fundamental emotions! 

His own heavy burdens, which he carried as only 
the bravest men can carry burdens, were never visible, 
and that also was a mark of a big character. I doubt 
if any man can recall Charles Mclver's uttering a 
single complaining word. 

But these qualities of companionship and kindliness 
and cheerfulness and bravery are not all that come 
to mind in the grateful and affectionate memory 
that we who loved him shall ever have of him. He 
had another quality that only large men have — he 
was a builder of things. He did not work aimlessly. 
We have had no man among us who carried a truer 
singleness of purpose or who had a more definite 
aim in life than he — call it an inspiration, or a vision, 
or a business, as you like — it was all these. He 
moulded out of the public opinion of North Carolina 
a great institution, which embodied a clear cut idea 
and was founded on a definite philosophy of human 
progress. It is a noble idea, too, for the State Normal 
and Industrial College for women was literally made 
by him out of the opinion of the State as the bricks 
in its buildings were made out of clay by their 
moulders. Everybody who knew him had heard him 
expound his doctrine of the right training of women — 
heard his arraignment of modern life — not in North 
Carolina only nor in particular, but of modern society 
in general — for its neglect of women. About this he 
had the zeal of a crusader. Think how few other 

92 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



men in North Carolina, or in other States, have ever 
built outright a great institution and you have a meas- 
ure of the man. He built it once and forever, too, 
for he planted it deep in the affections of the people 
and especially the women. 

Twice he had a chance possibly to become President 
of the State University, but he considered his work 
in building a College for women of greater import- 
ance. He might at any time during the last six or 
eight years, have received an income that would have 
relieved him of all financial care and provided lux- 
uriously for his family if he had given his time to 
business undertakings. He was even advised by some 
of his closest friends to accept such an offer. But 
the building and the development of a great college 
for the training of women (and by the training of 
women, the lifting up of the whole people) was dearer 
to him than all other aims in life; and he never 
hesitated. 

That, too, was the work of a great nature — that he 
took his pleasure in building a worthy institution 
and not in his personal comfort nor in the advance- 
ment of any personal ambition or wish for future 
honor. 

May I say frankly here that the State must learn 
to pay men, who fill positions like this, much higher 
salaries than it now pays? Else it will not always 
get the services of the best men. Dr. Mclver was a 
pitifully underpaid public servant. The State has 



93 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



passed the place where it need be niggardly, or can 
afford to be niggardly, to its great public servants. 

And he had the quality not only of a builder, but 
another high quality still — the quality of a popular 
leader. There is no way of accurately measuring 
his influence in developing public sentiment — in North 
Carolina in particular, but in other States as well — 
to public educational activity and to a higher life 
for all the people. Outside the State, he was, I think, 
everywhere regarded as the most influential leader of 
the people for popular education that this genera- 
tion of men has known. 

A rare genius for friendship, a cheerful and uplift- 
ing personality, a high and absorbing purpose which 
admitted of no selfishness, the great faculty of a 
builder of institutions and the great faculty of lead- 
ing public opinion for the higher aims — Charles 
Mclver had all these ; and any man who had such an 
aggregation of high qualities is a great man. His 
going leaves us poorer (a great multitude of us who 
had his friendship,) and it leaves the State and the 
nation poorer. Yet State and individuals are very 
much richer for his life and work. 

I should like to write it here (and many men could 
make the same confession) that I owe him an incal- 
culable debt, which can be paid only by an affectionate 
remembrance — for his cheerfulness, his humor, his 
inspiration and helpfulness of spirit, the example of 
his unswerving devotion to one high task, his balanced 
and happy view of life, his noble and intimate ser- 

94 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYEB 



vice of brotherhood. To us all and for us all, he 
was, brother, builder, leader, a great force in our lives 
and in the life of his time. The people of the com- 
monwealth — all the people of the commonwealth — 
had in him as true a friend and servant as was ever 
born in the whole long list of our patriots and heroes. 
No one ever loved the people more truly than he. He 
was of us; he stood for us; he worked for us; he 
believed in us ; and he had no ambition but ambition 
for our development. That is the measure of his 
greatness of nature and it should be the measure of 
our affectionate gratitude. 

His intellectual grasp of the fundamental problems 
of a democracy was strong ; and it was not an intellec- 
tual grasp only, but a moral grasp also. He had as 
clear and well reasoned a philosophy of social improve- 
ment as Jefferson had, and he had worked it out from 
life — he had not merely got it from books. And he 
had a humor and a faith in the mass of men as genuine 
as Lincoln's. He was a fundamental, elemental man 
— not a mere product of education and environment ; 
and this is the reason that he was of close kinship to 
us all. Nobody knew him who did not have much in 
common with him. 

A worthy statue of him, for which we have the pri- 
vilege of subscribing will do us credit; for it will 
show those who come after us what kind of man we set 
high value on — the man who nobly builds for the 
people and serves the people unselfishly. That is the 



95 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



kind of man to honor, for that kind of man is the 
highest product and vindication of our democracy. 

Walter H. Page. 

Extract from North Carolina University Magazine, 

October, 1906 

* * * No one since Calvin H. Wiley has done 
so much for the children of the State as Dr. Mclver. 
No written memorial can quite indicate what he had 
come to stand for in our Southern life and thought. 
No meeting of Southern educators seemed complete 
without him; no educational program satisfactory 
until his name appeared on it. Almost every news- 
paper in the State has said that his death was the 
saddest calamity that could have come to North Caro- 
lina in the death of any one of its citizens, and the 
statement will not be challenged. There are men in 
North Carolina possessed of higher scholarship than 
he, but there is no one to compare with him in the 
promotion of intellectual advancement and civic 
righteousness — no one who seems to have been able 
to throw himself whole-heartedly and sympathetically 
into the people's cause and labor so effectively for 
their children's welfare and happiness. 

In the beautiful eulogy pronounced over his dead 
friend, Mr. Bryan paid high tribute to Dr. Mclver 's 
lofty idealism. It was this devotion of his to an ideal, 
coupled with his boundless sympathy for the common 
people and his marvelous power to inspire faith in 

96 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



others that made possible his splendid achievements. 
He never allowed himself to grow out of touch with the 
great masses. He was laboring for their advancement, 
and he well knew that to help them he must be in 
sympathy with their trials and struggles, their hopes 
and their joys. He would meet the ignorant laboring 
man from the backwoods district with the same 
friendly smile and kindly greeting and the same warm 
hand-shake that were given to the highest official, 
and tell him in his inimitable style the same joke 
perhaps; and somehow the common man knew that 
beneath it all there was genuine sympathy — genuine 
manhood. In a word, he was never handicapped by 
becoming what the world calls academic. 
# # * Flattering calls time and again came to 
him to go to other institutions in other States, but 
he disregarded them all, preferring to remain here 
where it seemed to him his services were most needed, 
even though they were not in a financial way so 
well rewarded. His work came to absorb him 
thoroughly — for he was watching and guiding the 
very realization of his own dream. He saw that this 
work was not finished, and he could not go. # * 
Another piece of his work that must not be for- 
gotten is the organization of the Woman's Associa- 
tion for the betterment of School Buildings and 
Grounds. If his fertile brain had done nothing more 
for North Carolina than bring into being this Asso- 
ciation, the State would still be his debtor — I had 
almost said it would be amply repaid for every dollar 

97 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



it has ever expended upon the Normal and Industrial 
College. To appreciate what this splendid organiza- 
tion has done and is doing — and it is only in its 
infancy — one has but to visit some of our rural com- 
munities where its influence has been felt — it cannot 
be estimated, it cannot be told, one must see it to 
believe. 

Dr. Mclver was a loyal son to his Alma Mater. 
After graduation he attended every commencement 
held here but one, and he would have come then but 
was unavoidably detained at home. His Alma Mater, 
too, has watched his career with pride and she has 
gloried in his achievements. She has recognized in 
him that type of manhood she desires to send out 
into the world. In 1893 she conferred upon him the 
degree of Doctor of Letters, and again in 1904 in 
recognition of his faithful, efficient service, she called 
him back to bestow upon him her highest badge of 
honor, the degree of Doctor of Laws. The University 
and the State are proud of his noble career. And a 
hundred years hence, when this educational revival 
shall have become a shining chapter of history, and 
Mclver 's service shall be appreciated for its true 
worth, if truth be not dumb and simple justice blind, 
posterity must accord him a place with Murphy 
and Yancey and Wiley, with Macon and Graham and 
Morehead and Vance, for he has played no little part 
in helping to shape the destiny of the State. His 
work will endure. N _ w _ Walkbb . 



98 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From Wake Forest Student 

On another page Professor Carlyle has a very timely 
article in appreciation of Dr. Mclver. But we cannot 
refrain from the temptation of adding just another 
word of sympathy to the great host of young women 
over the State who had learned to love him, for what 
he was and what he had done for them, but who are 
now saddened because in the midst of a momentous life 
their firm friend was smitten with death, and is no 
more. No ! Not that, for he still lives, and long will his 
memory be cherished in North Carolina. The work 
that he did so well can not die, neither can he, for he 
has reared his monument in the hearts and out of the 
lives of mothers of the State, and the children of gene- 
rations yet to come will be taught to revere and love 
Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, their mothers' best 
friend. 

He can ill be spared in the State just now, for 
there is so much yet to be done by these mighty educa- 
tional statesmen, but during his life he builded so 
broadly and so firmly that what he has done will 
remain to influence others to devote themselves to 
this great field of activity and to take up the work 
that our great educational leader has laid down. 

From Guilford Collegian, November, 1906 

Measuring greatness by the results of a life-work, 
no man of North Carolina has equaled Dr. Charles 

99 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Duncan Mclver in greatness. If a man is great who 
causes two blades of grass to grow where one grew 
before, how immeasurably greater is he who causes 
a hundred minds to grow where one grew before! 
If he be great who discovers a chemical or a physical 
element which advances science and so revolutionizes 
the world 's industries, how much greater is he who dis- 
covers the elements of a people's greatness and who 
convinces them of their power to make good those 
elements ! If the inventor of rapid transit or of tele- 
phonic communication be great, how little he is com- 
pared with the man who waited not for the speedy car 
nor for the telephone to take to the people the gospel 
of work which should lift them and their children's 
children out of the darkness of ignorance, who pointed 
the way and led them up the steep places! What 
sort of greatness is worth that which in twenty years 
touched for betterment the lives of 200,000 children, 
who will in an endless chain multiply his work so long 
as North Carolina shall stand as a commonwealth? 
This has been Dr. Mclver 's work. Can any man 
show a greater? * # * * * 

The work among us has been so great because of 
the tireless passion for the people's welfare in the 
heart of this inspired teacher that the movement has 
passed beyond our borders, and other States both 
north and south of us have felt the impact and been 
shaken into new life. They called to him from Maine 
to Louisiana and from the far West, saying: "Come 
and help us. " 

100 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



To no call was he deaf. He went as gladly, with as 
much fire and zeal, to the country school closing pre- 
sided over by one of "the Normal girls" as he did 
to a National Educational Association's meeting 
where he touched and measured up to the great minds 
— the leaders of thought of the world. 

Since the opening of his college in 1892, its growth 
and usefulness have been his first wish. To that he 
has given his life. He made it what the editor of the 
last Review of Reviews calls it : " The wonderful 
institution" and "one of the finest schools for the 
culture of women in the world." The same writer 
speaks of Dr. Mclver as "one of the most useful and 
important men of his generation in America. ' ' 

It is safe to say that there was no educational or 
civic cause to which he did not lend himself. If not 
his voice, pen or presence, then his purse was opened 
and always with a gracious and generous hand. 
No organization in his home city was complete without 
him. He was Greensboro's and North Carolina's 
first and best beloved citizen. Men once were jealous 
of him — but not towards the end. He lived down the 
littleness in the hearts of others. The last time this 
writer saw him, he suggested the writing of a paper 
which should bring into favorable notice the work of 
one who years ago had striven to injure him. It 
was a public service which had been rendered and he 
thought it ought to be acknowledged publicly. His 
stern, sturdy devotion to public duty was superior 
to any thought of self, but he treasured no wrath, 

101 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



he kept alive in his heart no bitterness. His heart 
was the heart of a boy. It was the eternal youth in 
him that kept him bubbling over with fun, with 
laughter, with the quick sympathy, with the impulse 
to do and to do without delay. It was this mirthful, 
loving heart of the boy that drew all hearts to him 
with a magnetism not to be resisted. In his pocket, 
when he had so suddenly fallen asleep, was resting 
a communication from a little girl who had "copied 
for Dr. Mclver's amusement" a rollicksome anecdote 
which she thought would make him laugh. He did 
laugh over it and made her little heart glad by an 
appreciative message. 

He married Miss Lula Martin, of Winston, August 
29, 1885. In the early days of his career, some friends 
called her his buoy and no woman ever more truly 
kept alive in her husband the hope and buoyancy so 
necessary for the success of such far-reaching plans 
and labors as were his. At his side in the conflict, 
abreast with him through the thick of the battle 
for "State Aid," she did not cease to strive with him 
and for the cause till success came. Then like the 
loyal wife and mother that she is, she retired to her 
fireside proud and happy. 

God laid his finger upon him and he sleeps — the 
body sleeps. The spirit lives. Honesty and faithful- 
ness to his vision were his characteristics. No other 
man so filled with civic virtue has lived among us. 
His impress upon North Carolina will never be effaced. 
Our young men and women have largely imbibed 

102 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



his traits. These will teach coming generations to 

honor him as their greatest teacher. 

As a leader of men he was wise and brave. When 

opposition, misfortune, trials came, he was constant. 

When justly offended, his wrath was temperate. As 

a husband, father, friend, he was loyal and loving 

down to the gates of death. 

Annie G. Randall. 

From The Religious Herald, Richmond, Va. 

* # # Certain travelers, says Mazzini, relate 
that they saw at Teneriffe a prodigiously lofty tree, 
which by its immense extent of foliage, collected all 
the moisture of the atmosphere, to discharge it when 
the branches were shaken in a shower of pure and 
refreshing water upon the parched ground. Such is 
the function of great men in this world. They focus 
the rays of light; they detect the subtle currents 
of thought that are building up continents and wear- 
ing away islands; they behold the divine significance 
of the present day, so commonplace to eyes not 
"purged with euphrasy and rue"; they embody the 
potentiality of their time and magically reflect the 
future; they are the pathfinders of mankind. Such 
an one was Charles D. Mclver, who by a sudden death 
last week was taken in the prime of life from high 
public duties. The South has lost a true son; the 
nation, a friend; and education, a creative spirit. 



103 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



I recall distinctly the first time that I saw Dr. 
Mclver. It was at a meeting some years ago held 
under the auspices of the Richmond Education Asso- 
ciation. He lifted for me the curtain upon the field 
of popular education in a democracy. With the zeal, 
eloquence and contagious patriotism of Horace Mann 
or J. L. M. Curry, he urged the necessity of making 
the schools efficient by better houses, longer terms, 
more adequate salaries and up-to-date methods, 
because our material prosperity, social progress and 
political power depend upon universal enlightenment. 

On another occasion also, Dr. Mclver did valiant 
service for this State. When on March 28, 1904, a 
few friends of education were called together in the 
Senate Chamber by the Governor of Virginia, with 
a view to forming the Co-operative Education Asso- 
ciation, an event that marked a new era in the history 
of the Commonwealth, Dr. Mclver was there, to 
encourage, guide and inspire this movement in the 
interest of the people. For such constructive work 
as this in the cause of education, he was peculiarly 
fitted by his magnetic personality, solid judgment, 
intense patriotism and enkindling enthusiasm. To 
these qualities he added an experience rich in results 
to his native State of North Carolina. It was an 
epoch in the development of that State when, about 
two decades ago, Dr. Mclver and his yoke-fellow, 
Dr. Alderman, young men aglow with the spirit of 
progress, began amid general lethargy a campaign 
for the common schools. At first the work was slow; 

104 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



ideas had to be forged and energies awakened. But 
ere long these prophets of a new order, industrial, 
social, and political, were cheered by widespread 
interest in all kinds of education. They made it plain 
that it is the highest duty of the people in the South 
to put their money, heart and brains into the school. 
The result is written in the unexampled power which 
the Old North State has been showing in recent years. 
To four aspects of education did Dr. Mclver in the 
main devote his energies. First, the common schools, 
which he believed essential to the welfare of the masses. 
Secondly, the training of teachers, because he dis- 
cerned that all real efficiency in our schools must 
begin with well-equipped teachers. Thirdly, the 
education of women, because they are the chief 
teachers of the children, both in the home and in the 
school. To this end he founded the North Carolina 
Normal and Industrial College, over which he presided 
with such dignity and power till the time of his 
death. Fourthly, the nationalizing of the educational 
spirit and ideals of the South. He loved his native 
State, but he loved it as a member of the Union; he 
loved the South, but he loved it as an integral part 
of the American Nation. He was big enough to 
embrace in his affections the interests of the whole 
country, and he wished all education to throb respon- 
sively to this patriotic sentiment of unity. Hence 
he was a vital agent in the work of the Southern 
Education Board, of which he was the Secretary. He 
stood squarely for the conciliatory and beneficent 

105 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



policies of that large movement. In consequence, his 
influence was by no means confined to North Carolina 
or the South. He had friends in all parts of the 
Kepublic, in which his personality cemented the bonds 
of Union. 

Many a demagogue among us has made more noise 
than Dr. Mclver, but no worker, perhaps, has been 
more solidly useful in all the recent creative enter- 
prises of our Southern people. He was without self- 
seeking. Knowing the stress of circumstances in 
which the South is placed, he was yet brave and cheer- 
ful in his outlook upon the future. Quickening in 
every way the individual growth and agricultural 
development of the South, he kept always before him 
the supremacy of the spiritual as it operates in educa- 
tion, in law, in political morality, and in religion. 
' i As poor, yet making many rich. ' ' If any young man 
in the South is in search of a concrete ideal to follow 
in life, I can point him unreservedly to Charles D. 
Mclver, who, as a friend of humanity, had a sure 

sense of power in behalf of humanity. 

S. C. M. 

From Richmond Times-Dispatch 

No man in the South has done more to advance 
the cause of education, and especially to dignify the 
calling of teaching, than the late Charles D. Mclver, 
of North Carolina, whose sudden death was announced 
in yesterday's Times-Dispatch. By his public 
addresses and in his writings for the newspapers and 

106 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



magazines, he impressed with overwhelming force 
the importance of educating the children, and the 
greater importance of committing their training to 
the best teachers. He was himself an educator of 
teachers, and the honorable institution at Greensboro 
over which he presided has been the means of supply- 
ing to the North Carolina schools the class of teachers 
in which he believed. Every graduate sent out from 
the State Normal College was not only trained in the 
art of instruction, but was infused with the spirit of 
Mclver, and impressed with the dignity and sanctity 
of her calling. Dr. Mclver was a bundle of energy 
and nervous and spiritual force, and when death 
came it found him at work in the cause to which he 
had given his mind, his heart and his character in 
complete consecration. His death is an irreparable 
loss to North Carolina and to the educational prop- 
aganda of the South, but the energy and spirit which 
he gave to the movement will be a continuing and 
perpetual monument. The Times-Dispatch finds some 
consolation in the remembrance that in his life we 
gave him words of comfort, good cheer and encourage- 
ment and now that his career is closed, in sweet 
sorrow we lay upon his bier this wreath of pansies, 
rosemary and laurel. * * * 

Not long before his taking-off, a citizen of New 
York died at a ripe old age. He had heaped up 
treasure to the value of fifty millions and more, and 
he did it honestly. The worst that was ever said of 
him was that he drove hard bargains with those who 

107 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



were in urgent need of ready cash, but his customers 
were rich and could afford to pay the price. He 
did not trade with poor men, or widows and orphans. 
He had done something for charity in his day, he had 
led a moral life, and he was devoted to his wife. He 
was a man of national reputation. His name was 
familiar to everybody, and his birthday anniversary 
was recorded in the New York newspapers as regularly 
as it rolled around. When the end came suddenly, 
there was a "flurry in Wall Street," for he was a 
power in the financial world, and the newspapers 
"featured" that story of his death, because it was a 
noteworthy event. 

But we searched in vain the editorial columns of 
the newspapers for any "noble tribute" to his charac- 
ter, and if any newspaper recorded that he was a 
useful citizen, that the world was better for his living, 
that he did anything for the uplift of humanity, we 
failed to note it. Charles Duncan Mclver was a 
poor school-teacher — we mean a school-teacher who 
was poor in purse, for he was one of the best teachers 
of his day and generation. He never bothered about 
money for himself, although he spent much of his time 
in trying to induce the taxpayers to pay better salaries 
to the men and women who were educating their 
children. Wall Street never heard of him, and his 
death had no more effect on "the market" than the 
death of a pauper. But every newspaper in North 
Carolina made his taking-off the subject of an edi- 
torial eulogy and they vied with one another in 

108 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



praising his character and his work. Newspapers in 
other States were quite as generous in their laudations, 
and his remains had hardly been laid to rest before 
a movement was started to erect a monument to his 
memory. 

Look on that picture, then on this. Why the differ- 
ence in popular estimate and popular regard? The 
one worked for himself; the other worked for others. 
The one got all he could; the other gave all he could. 
The one heaped up ; the other scattered abroad. 

Verily they have their reward. 

From Columbia State 

The people of South Carolina share with those in 
North Carolina the deep sorrow at the death of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver. Dr. Mclver is well remembered 
here. On several occasions he spoke to large audiences 
upon the subject of popular education, twice in the 
opera house and once in the state house. Not one who 
heard him failed to be interested, and few who heard 
him have forgotten the great force of the man and the 
force of the great ideas he so entertainingly presented. 
Dr. Mclver was a member of the Southern Education 
Board, and North and South Carolina comprised the 
territory allotted to him. He had made himself 
famous before he ever came to South Carolina, how- 
ever, having with Dr. E. A. Alderman, now president 
of the University of Virginia, conducted a memorable 
campaign for popular education in North Carolina. 

109 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



He was one school teacher who was a great "mixer." 
and when he got out among the people of the country 
he was able with his homely manner and his homely 
illustrations and his great fund of common sense, to 
impress them with the great importance of building 
up their schools at any cost. His great work, how- 
ever, to which he has devoted his life, was the educa- 
tion of women. It was upon this subject that he made 
an address in Columbia at the meeting of the Southern 
Teachers' Association several years ago. Under his 
able, inspiring administration the North Carolina Nor- 
mal and Industrial College for women at Greensboro 
has been built up in the face of adversity and mis- 
fortune into one of the best in the South. Upon the 
death of Dr. J. L. M. Curry, Dr. Mclver was named 
by a large number of admirers as a fit successor as 
general agent of the Peabody Education Board. This 
position, it was thought, called for just such powers 
as Dr. Mclver displayed. On the whole North Caro- 
lina loses one of its most noble and valuable citizens, 
and South Carolina loses a friend whom she had just 
begun to appreciate. 

From Baltimore Sun 

The sudden death of Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver 
removes one of the educational leaders of the South. 
When he graduated from the State University at 
Chapel Hill he found the public schools of North 
Carolina in a deplorable condition. The great major- 

110 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



ity of the teachers were poorly equipped for their task, 
the schoolhouses in most of the rural districts were built 
of logs or were plank boxes, and the percentage of 
illiteracy was probably greater than in any other State. 
From his entrance into active life, Dr. Mclver devoted 
every effort to bringing about new conditions in his 
native State. First, to arouse public sentiment, Dr. 
Mclver and Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, now president 
of the University of Virginia, spent two years in going 
through the State, preaching and teaching, holding 
teachers' institutes in nearly all the 96 counties. Out 
of this campaign grew the movement that led to the 
establishment of the State Normal College for women 
and the Agricultural and Mechanical College for boys. 
In the face of a hundred obstacles, Dr. Mclver suc- 
ceeded in founding the Normal College, of which he 
was the first and only president. As president of the 
Southern Educational Association, secretary of the 
Southern Board of Education, and honored officer 
of sectional and national associations, he came to be 
the recognized leader of the educational movement in 
the South that has attracted attention in every part 
of the country. 

From The Southern Workman, Hampton, Va. 

The death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of 
the State Normal College at Greensboro, N. C, removes 
one of the most interesting and striking charac- 
ters of the South. Dr. Mclver was a leading southern 

ill 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



educator, and perhaps did as much to make the com- 
mon schools of the South what they are as any one 
man, with the possible expection of Dr. Curry. 

He was a man of rare ability as a speaker. His 
sympathy with his people and his knowledge of their 
real condition gave him wonderful power upon the 
platform. No one who listened to his impassioned 
appeal at Lexington, Kentucky, at the last session of 
the Conference for Education in the South, will be 
likely to forget the wonderful combination of delight- 
ful humor and intense earnestness which character- 
ized his address. He never spoke without appealing 
for better opportunities for the young women of the 
South. With the power of an artist he pictured the 
place which women must hold in the building up of 
a Christian civilization. He seldom spoke in public 
without making an appeal for better chances for the 
teacher. He often called attention to the fact that the 
average teacher in the South receives a smaller wage 
than the men who break stones upon the road. 

In the Institution at Greensboro which Dr. Mclver 
founded and to which he devoted the best years of 
his life, he created an enthusiasm for the education 
of the common people that means much to the future 
of the South. 

When the story of the real reconstruction of the 
South is written, the name of Charles Duncan Mclver 
will stand out in large letters. 



112 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYER 



From The Educational Exchange, Alabama 

Dr. Mclver is dead. So ran a few days ago the 
saddening message over the South. 

Millions knew him, thousands mourn his loss, 
hundreds will remember him while life is allotted them. 

Charles Duncan Mclver saw work to do, and began 
it. Of that group who have refought recently the 
battles of intelligence against ignorance, he was chief. 

Always in earnest, ever in good humor, completely 
saturated with the facts, never at a loss for a word — 
Dr. Mclver was an apostle of education such as Paul 
was of religion. He literally wore himself out in the 
service of the people. He found time during his vaca- 
tion to travel over the Southern States carrying his 
inspiring message to thousands of teachers, and there- 
by blessing myriads of children. 

Sorrow has fallen into the hearts of all those 
teachers in Alabama who heard Dr. Mclver at the 
University Summer School. Many will take out their 
notebooks and read again the words penciled there — 
and a new meaning will come from those earnest, ten- 
der, beseeching words. 

From The Louisiana School Review 

The South and the whole country as well suffered 
an irreparable loss in the sudden death of Dr. Charles 
Duncan Mclver on September 17, 1906. Even at the 
time of the stroke of apoplexy from which he died, 

113 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



he was in the exercise of a public function as a repre- 
sentative of his State, being one of a committee of 
escort and reception extended to a visiting statesman 
of national reputation — Mr. W. J. Bryan. 

Dr. Mclver was identified with the great educational 
movement now going on in his own State of North 
Carolina, and in all the South. As an institute 
instructor for a number of years in company with 
other young North Carolina men — such as Edwin A. 
Alderman and Charles B. Ay cock — he early impressed 
himself upon the notice and appreciation of the citi- 
zenship of his State. He succeeded in securing the 
establishment of the Normal and Industrial College 
for women at Greensboro, of which he was made Presi- 
dent. In this position he has continuously carried 
forward the solution of the educational problem — 
which, as he clearly saw in the beginning, was the 
introduction of trained teachers into every county 
and every school. Meanwhile he had developed power 
and influence as a speaker and a worker that brought 
many demands for his assistance in other States. 
Louisiana had him during the present year. The great- 
est meeting of Louisiana teachers that ever assembled 
— which was that held in Baton Rouge last April — had 
Dr. Mclver as one of the principal speakers. Things 
he said during those three days have been bearing 
fruit in every parish in Louisiana and the work is 
still going on. One of his strongest lines of work was 
the urging of special taxes. His suggestions to super- 
intendents and school officers to study the assessment 

114 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



rolls with a view to discovering how much actual taxes 
the wealthiest citizens would have to pay in support 
of a proposed school tax, or how much the chief oppo- 
nents of the measure would have to pay — and what 
proportion these amounts would bear to what they 
ought to pay, etc. — these suggestions of Dr. Mclver 
have probably caused more ' ' trouble ' ' as well as more 
actual progress in Louisiana since that time than can 
be estimated. Our schoolmen will ever have reason to 
be grateful that his life was spared till after its influ- 
ence had been directly given to them. His body now 
may rest from labor — but his spirit marches on. 

It is not generally known that there is in Louisiana 
a substantial representation of a Mclver idea in 
school building, that may now serve as a memorial in 
a small way to our departed f ellow- worker ; namely, 
the two octagon towers forming the front of the main 
building of the Southwestern Louisiana Industrial 
Institute at Lafayette, which are duplications, in 
part, of two similar towers in the main building of 
the North Carolina Normal and Industrial College. 

But Mclver 's personality and self -surrender to the 
general cause of education is his great monument with 
us and with all. 

From The Commoner, Lincoln, Nebraska 



On another page will be found a well deserved trib- 
ute to the late Charles Duncan Mclver from the pen 
of Dr. Albert Shaw, the editor of the Review of 



115 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Reviews. Dr. Mclver died suddenly on the special train 
which carried Mr. Bryan through North Carolina a 
few days ago. The latter 's first visit to North Carolina 
was made twelve years ago at Dr. Mclver 's invitation 
and from that day they were close personal as well 
as political friends. Dr. Mclver was a rare man. 
Having worked his way up from an humble station 
he first showed what an ambitious young man could 
do for himself, and then he dedicated himself to the 
task of showing what a noble and unselfish man could 
do for his fellows. He received flattering offers to 
go into other occupations, but he regarded his occupa- 
tion, that of teaching, as a calling to him and resisted 
the temptation. He did not leave much money, but 
he left what money cannot buy — a good name which, 
as the wise man says, is rather to be chosen than great 
riches, and loving favor, which is to be preferred to 
silver and gold. The fortune which he left can not 
be computed in dollars, and is a legacy to the entire 
land. So great was the sorrow caused by his death 
that the political meeting which was arranged for his 
city that evening was converted into a memorial meet- 
ing. How this old world would be transformed if all 
of its people cherished the ideal which Dr. Mclver 
followed along an ever brightening way! 

From New York Times 

The sudden and unexpected death of Dr. Charles 
Duncan Mclver, of North Carolina, is a substantial loss 

116 






CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



to the cause of education in this country. He was the 
President of the State Normal and Industrial College 
at Greensboro, was a member of the Southern Educa- 
tion Board, and had charge of the field work of the 
Board in his State. He had been active in organizing 
Summer Schools and Teachers' Institutes in North 
Carolina, and was a tireless, energetic, and very 
influential advocate of general education. With all 
a Southern man's profound disapproval of any mixing 
of the races, he held that it was the most obvious and 
important duty of the State to provide for each of 
the races the best possible schooling. In view of the 
urgent needs of the South he advocated industrial 
schooling as the dominant element. We think that 
there are very few men in any section of the country 
who have done better work for education in a more 
effectual way than he. He was of Scottish descent, 
and had the vigor, the shrewdness, the quick intuition 
of the practical of his ancestry. He was a Southerner 
to the core, and had the warmth, fervor, and lovable- 
ness of the best strain of Southern blood. And he had 
what may be called a Scottish-Southern gift of public 
advocacy, direct and well denned statement, the zest 
of deep conviction, a wit that flashed like a rapier, but 
disarmed rather than wounded an opponent; a grasp 
of principles and generalizations of a high order, 
and a sympathy with his fellow-men that opened the 
way for him to all hearts. A brave, faithful, generous, 
and gifted leader, he will be sadly missed. 



117 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From Little Rock Gazette, Arkansas 

Dr. Charles D. Mclver, whose sudden death occurred 
September 17th, while on his way to Greensboro, N. C, 
as a member of the reception committee accompany- 
ing Hon. W. J. Bryan to that city, was well known to 
many of the educators of Arkansas. Hon. John H. 
Hinemon, in speaking of him, said : 

1 ' I feel that in the death of Dr. Mclver I have lost 
a personal friend of many years' standing. He was 
widely known among the educators of this country, 
having for many years been a member of the National 
Educational Association, and standing in the front 
ranks of those who were prominent in its councils. 
Two years ago he lacked only two votes of being elected 
president of this great body, and it was understood 
that at the next meeting he would be unanimously 
chosen for this office. 

"Dr. Mclver was a man of most attractive manners 
and it was esteemed a privilege to number him among 
one 's friends. A more conscientious man I have never 
known. As an instructor he was second to none in the 
South, and the position which he occupied as President 
of the State Normal and Industrial College of North 
Carolina attested the esteem in which he was held in 
that State. The eulogy delivered by Mr. Bryan in 
speaking of Dr. Mclver 's life was no exaggeration. 
His life was indeed an ideal one and no man ever left 
a clearer record. He will be sadly missed by those 



118 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



who have enjoyed his presence at the annual meetings 
of the National Educational Association." 



From The American Monthly Review of Reviews, 

October, 1906 

Charles Duncan Mclver, who died suddenly last 
month, was one of the most useful and important 
men of his generation in America. If the country did 
not know him well, it was because he was too busy 
serving its highest interests to impress himself, as he 
might easily have done, upon the entire nation. Dr. 
Mclver was the President of the North Carolina State 
Normal and Industrial College, an institution for 
young women at Greensboro. That would have been 
a worthy and honorable post for any man to fill, but 
Dr. Mclver was much more than the administrative 
head of a school for girls. He was a great educational 
statesman at a time and in a section where the educa- 
tion of the children ought in truth to be the foremost 
task of the real leader of a State. 

Dr. Mclver was not quite forty-six years old; but 
his influence was already great, and his achievement 
was of the sort that saves imperiled civilizations and 
transforms communities. He recognized the fact that 
the South was backward in its educational work, and 
from the very day that he graduated at the University 
of North Carolina he became an apostle of the move- 
ment to improve the schools. He became an organizer 
of public school systems in the cities of his State, and a 

119 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



leader in the work of creating rural schools under con- 
ditions of lack and need such as can hardly be under- 
stood in the North. He organized and conducted teach- 
ers ' institutes in all the counties, and became the great 
propagandist of progress in school affairs throughout 
North Carolina. 

He soon came to realize the fact that a good school 
system could not be possible without a better trained 
corps of teachers, and he determined to provide an 
institution that would receive a great number of 
promising girls from all parts of the State, give them 
an education at small cost, and train them to be 
teachers of exactly the type needed in the schools, 
particularly of the rural districts. He appealed to 
the Legislature with ultimate success, secured his 
appropriation in 1891, and opened his school some 
fourteen years ago. The State has dealt with him 
generously, for Dr. Mclver's enthusiasm has never 
failed to carry the Legislature in the direction of his 
desires. Other very important educational posts from 
time to time were open to him, but he felt that his 
work could best center in the direction and develop- 
ment of the wonderful institution he created at Greens- 
boro. It is one of the finest schools for the culture 
of women in the whole world and it will stand as a 
monument to Mclver's energy and splendid talent, 
both as an organizer and as a trainer of teachers. 

In due time Dr. Mclver became the leader of a 
remarkable movement in his State for the adoption 
of a plan of adequate local taxation to supplement 

120 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



State funds in the carrying on of schools. The trans- 
forming results of this campaign ought to be widely 
known for their inspirational value elsewhere. His per- 
sonal influence as an educational leader could not be 
confined to the bounds of his own State and he became 
influential throughout the South as one of the half 
dozen foremost men in a movement for improving 
school legislation and bettering practical educational 
conditions. 

He was a man of remarkable eloquence, and of 
great readiness and power on all occasions in public 
speech. He was famous for his wit, and for his 
unlimited store of amusing incidents and anecdotes. 

When the Southern Education Board was formed 
some years ago he became one of its members, and as 
chairman of its campaign committee his labors were 
incessant and of priceless service to the cause. He 
was president of the Southern Educational Associa- 
tion last year, and was always one of the most promi- 
nent men in the National Association, counting among 
his close personal friends the foremost educators in 
the United States throughout the North as well as the 
South. If he had chosen to turn his energies into 
political channels he would have been Governor of his 
State and then United States Senator. 

His efficiency and his gifts of leadership would 
have made him a marked man, and a rare success in 
any profession or calling. But he gloried in the work 
he had chosen, and believed that the right training 
of women, for the sake of the home and the common 

121 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



school, was the most fundamentally important thing 
with which he could possibly concern himself ; and so 
it was that he gave his strength and his life to that 
work. He can be ill spared, but he had builded so 
broadly and staunchly that what he has done will 
remain. Furthermore, he had a fine gift for working 
with other men and for bringing forward young 
associates and colleagues imbued with his ideas and 
spirit, and trained to promote educational progress 
along the lines he had laid down. Thus, his work 
will remain ; his memory will long be honored in North 
Carolina; and in the loss of their noble educational 
leader many of the citizens of his State will be the 
more firmly resolved to devote themselves to the great 
cause of which he was chief apostle. 

Albert Shaw. 



Editorial in The Outlook, New York, Sep. 29, 1906 

In the group of men who must be counted among 
the real leaders of the South of today, Dr. Charles 
D. Mclver, who died suddenly on a train in North 
Carolina last week, held a foremost position. Born 
in Moore County, North Carolina, a descendant of 
Scotch Presbyterians, his pluck, indomitable energy, 
and practical sagacity bore witness to the strain in his 
blood. The University of North Carolina, on its 
beautiful eminence on College Hill, was his Alma 
Mater, as it was of a number of the leaders of the 
new educational movement, among them Dr. Alder- 

122 






CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



man, now President of the University of Virginia. 
Dr. Mclver went at once from college into educational 
work. He assisted in the organization of the public 
school systems of Winston and Durham in his native 
State; in 1886 he joined the faculty of Peace Insti- 
tute, in Raleigh; from 1889 to 1892 he was State 
Conductor of Teachers' Institutes in nearly all parts 
of his State. He was one of the group of young men 
upon whose souls the illiteracy of North Carolina lay 
like a weight, and who responded to the silent appeal 
of the uneducated with the passion and fervor of 
religious enthusiasm. These young men entered upon 
an educational campaign which must be regarded as 
one of the most interesting and picturesque incidents 
in the educational history of the country, though to 
the campaigners it was chiefly hard work, rude fare, 
and a tremendous exercise of will power to overcome 
the deep-seated animosity of the audiences they 
addressed to the payment of taxes for the support of 
schools. In season and out of season Dr. Mclver spoke 
in all parts of his State, and when the movement took 
organic form his services and ability were recognized 
by official position. He was Superintendent of Nor- 
mal Schools, President of the North Carolina Teachers' 
Assembly, and chairman of the committee which 
secured the appropriation for the State Normal and 
Industrial College, of which he became later the 
head. When the Southern Education Board was 
organized, he became a member, and as field agent in 
North Carolina his advocacy was characterized by 

123 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



energy, courage, wit, humor, and a passionate inter- 
est in his cause. He was an advocate of * * edu- 
cation for the white and black, and this broad and 
humane policy, with a generous provision from taxa- 
tion for educational purposes, has now been substan- 
tially accepted as the result of the splendid campaign 
made by this group of men. Dr. Mclver died in his 
early prime, but he had lived long enough to see the 
South aglow with enthusiasm for education, and the 
Summer School at Knoxville become one of the most 
impressive educational assemblages ever seen in this 
country. Dr. Mclver had served as President of the 
Southern Education Board, and was a member of 
the Council of the National Educational Association. 

From The World's Work, December, 1906 

* * * * After several years of teaching 
in several private schools — the last a school for 
girls — he had worked out a plan for the education 
of all the people with which he took fire and blazed 
till the end of his life. North Carolina was then 
one of the most illiterate States in the Union. He 
saw that the public school system must be developed 
so as to reach all the people ; and he saw that teach- 
ers must be trained for it. Then he discovered that 
there was no proper provision for training the young 
women of the State for teaching or for anything else. 
There were a few private and church schools for 
girls, but they could not reach the masses of neglected 



124 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



women. For nearly a hundred years the State had 
had a university for boys, but it was then utterly 
neglecting the girls. The burning shame of this neg- 
lect gave his career definite shape and made him an 
apostle, or a crusader, for the rest of his life. 
* * * * * Dr. Mclver's monument is this 
school. But he was born to work with large masses, 
to be a leader in a democracy. He was a schoolmaster 
of the people. He knew everybody. He took a part 
in every good movement. Many men have earnestness 
and some have humor. Once in a long while nature 
gives both these qualities in proper proportion to the 
same man, and thus she makes a man that is invincible. 
This bountiful endowment made Dr. Mclver ' ' the fore- 
most citizen of his town, the foremost citizen of his 
State, one of the most useful men in the Republic." 
He had been President of the Southern Educational 
Association, and he would probably have been the 
next President of the National Educational Associa- 
tion. He was a member of the Southern Education 
Board and the chairman of its "campaign committee" 
which directed a campaign for popular education in 
several Southern States, all the other members of the 
committee being men also engaged in educational work 
in those States. He organized everything that he 
touched — an association of women, for instance, to 
improve the public schoolhouses. He continued to 
stump his State and other States for the betterment 
of the public schools; and during a few years of his 
activity a new schoolhouse was built in North Caro- 

125 






CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



lina every working day. He had opportunities thrust 
upon him of making a large income if he would give 
his time to industrial pursuits ; he had offers of more 
lucrative professional positions than the one that he 
held. But he kept his own self-made place of leader- 
ship, with its pitifully meagre income, much of which 
he gave away to poor students, to movements for 
civic improvement — to every person or cause that 
meant the building-up of the people. For he believed 
in the people with as deep a conviction as any man 
ever had. * * * * * 

There is at the College a mass of such literature of 
a people's aspirations, gratitude, and affection as few 
men 's work and death have called forth — autobiog- 
raphies of women who were helped by him from hope- 
lessness to usefulness and happiness — "human docu- 
ments" so pathetic and yet so inspiring that a man 
cannot read them without shedding tears and having 
his faith in his fellows quickened. They say over and 
over again: "He did me a greater service than any 
other human being did." One woman wrote of him 
as "the State's greatest benefactor, the supremest 
friend of womankind, the kindliest heart." * 

With a definite philosophy of human improvement, 
with a cheerful, balanced view of life, here was a 
born leader in a democracy who really believed in 
the people, and who proved by leading an educational 
revolution (it has been nothing less) that an uncom- 
promising faith in them is abundantly justified. 



126 









MEMORIALS 



NORMAL COLLEGE MEMORIAL EXERCISES 

Held at The North Carolina State Normal and Industrial College, 
Greensboro, November 20th, 1906 

PROGRAMME 

Hymn — Rock of Ages. 

Invocation — Rev. Henry W. Battle, D. D. 

Duet — < ' O Spirit ! So Strong and Pure. ' » 

Address — Dr. E. A. Alderman, President of the University 
of Virginia. 

Male Quartet — ' ' One Sweetly Solemn Thought. ' ' 

Address — Dr. George T. Winston, President of North Caro- 
lina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 

Address — Dr. F. P. Venable, President of the University 
of North Carolina. 

Address — Dr. James E. Brooks, Grensboro, N. C. 

College Chorus — "Work Done, Come Home Today." 

Address — Representing former Students of the College, 
Mary K. Applewhite, of the Baptist University 
for Women. 

Address — Hon. J. Y. Joyner, State Superintendent of Pub- 
lic Instruction. 

Hymn — ' ' Nearer, My God, to Thee. ' » 

Benediction — Dr. G. S. Dickerman, of Southern Education 
Board. 



127 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



SWEETLY IMPEESSIVE EXEECISES 
From the Greensboro Daily Record 

Exceedingly beautiful and sweetly impressive and 
solemn were the exercises held this morning in the 
auditorium of the Students ' Building at the State 
Normal and Industrial College to honor the memory 
of Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, the late lamented 
President of the Institution, whose sad and sudden 
death on September 16th cast a gloom over the Col- 
lege, City and State, and spread to other portions of 
the country where the departed had often appeared 
in educational work and was loved and admired. 

The memorial service was arranged by the Board of 
Directors and Faculty of the College for the purpose 
of giving expression to the profound sorrow which 
his untimely death caused, and the program as carried 
out and the complete occasion was one of tenderness, 
sympathy and sorrowful love for the memory of the 
departed executive officer of the College. 

The attendance filled every seat in the spacious 
auditorium and included not only those connected 
with the College and numbers of representative citi- 
zens, but all the members of the Board of Directors, 
many former students, and a number of distinguished 
educators and prominent men and women from differ- 
ent sections of this and other States. 

The beauty and impressiveness of the service was 
enhanced by the quiet solemnity and sympathetic 
interest manifested and which pervaded the vast 

128 



CHARLES DUNCAN MclVEB 



audience, and many tearful eyes were to be seen as 
the various speakers alluded to the loss to the State 
that Dr. Mclver 's death occasioned. 

INTRODUCTORY BY ACTING PRESIDENT JULIUS I. 

FOUST 

The Board of Directors and the Faculty have 
deemed it appropriate that we turn aside for one day 
from our ordinary labors to honor the memory of our 
departed President. I feel that we honor ourselves 
when we thus devote this time to honoring the name 
of the great founder of this College. When we 
measure his life by the standard of unselfish devotion 
to a lofty ideal and by self-sacrificing service for the 
betterment of his people, Charles Duncan Mclver was 
one of the greatest men of his generation. No one 
ever gave more freely of his large native power than 
did he that he might elevate the citizenship of North 
Carolina. While his usefulness as an educational 
statesman made its impress upon the whole country, 
his loss cannot be felt in any place as it is here in 
the College that he founded and nourished. This Insti- 
tution will ever remain a lasting monument to his 
untiring energy and to his fidelity to the cause of 
educated and trained womanhood. To those of us who 
labored and worked with him the loss seems irrepa- 
rable. It is therefore not only fitting but right that 
we should meet today to recall some of his noble 
characteristics. 



129 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



We wish to extend a hearty welcome to those who 
have come from sister institutions and to the others 
who are here to join with us in this tribute to our 
great leader. 

We are glad that so many of the former students 
of the College whom he inspired by his example have 
found it possible to be with us today. Their presence 
is greatly appreciated. We wish them at all times to 
feel that this Institution still claims them and asks 
for their continued loyalty and support. 

The people of Greensboro have always sympathized 
with us in our joys and in our sorrows and we are glad 
that so many of them have come to join in these exer- 
cises and to show their appreciation of his unselfish 
service to our city. 

INVOCATION BY EEV. HENKY W. BATTLE, D. D. 






Oh, God, whom we would devoutly worship, life is 
Thy gift. The benignant bonds which unite society 
are ordered of Thee; the faculties and aspirations 
which work out useful and eminent careers are of Thy 
bestowment. All powers within and all circumstances 
without obey Thy pleasure, and Thou alone art great ! 
Lift our thoughts to Thee, as we enter upon the exer- 
cises of this solemn and impressive hour, and fill our 
hearts with profound gratitude for all Thy blessings. 
We thank Thee for men — strong, resourceful, God- 
fearing men ! — men of great brains, sympathetic 
hearts, indomitable energies and noble purposes, and 

130 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEK 



for all they have achieved on life's ever deepening, 
broadening and advancing tide. We thank Thee for 
him whose memory we honor today. Thou didst take 
him to Thyself "at the bright meridian of historic 
life," but not until he had attained the goal of his 
fondest desires and bequeathed a heritage of price- 
less possessions to the rising generation. We shed 
our tears above his bier, but, touched with the light 
of the Sun of Righteousness, they are transmuted into 
a rainbow of glory ! ' ' Though dead he yet speaketh ; ' ' 
though the manly form be mouldering in the dust, 
his conquering spirit beckons us on ! 

Give to us, we implore Thee, oh God, grace to dis- 
cern and appropriate the lessons inculcated by his 
life and death, and the tokens of a people's loving 
appreciation. In the tender light of this sacred hour 
enable us to see life and death and eternity as they 
are. 

Command Thy blessing, we beg Thee, upon those 
interests so supremely dear in life to the heart of our 
teacher, patriot, and philanthropist. Hasten the time 
when the ample page of knowledge shall lie open to 
every yearning heart and searching eye throughout 
North Carolina and all our beloved Southland. 

Bless all teachers, whether distinguished or obscure, 
whether wearing titled honors and ministering in 
splendid university, or performing offices of humble 
service in regions too concealed for the world's recog- 
nition and too remote for its ' applause. Oh, Thou, 
who, whilst on earth, didst love to be called Teacher, 

131 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



bless them! and may they teach, as he taught, joy- 
fully for Truth, our Country, and our God! 

Vouchsafe Thy continued favor in richest measure 
to this great Institution — the child of his genius and 
his love. Like a mighty ship she has breasted the 
waves, and now rides peacefully and majestically 
upon a quiet sea. The strong hand of the pilot has 
dropped from the wheel, but Thy hand is there ! 
and when to that other human hand shall be com- 
mitted this beauteous and majestic Queen of the 
Southern Seas, with her precious cargo of immortal 
destinies, may the choice be Thy choice, oh, God ! 

Hear Thou now the prayer of tender and reveren- 
tial love which goes up to Thee from each heart in this 
vast audience; Holy Spirit, Blessed Comforter, go 
with Thy sweet ministry where our feet may not 
enter, and to the sorrowing hearts of these bereaved 
ones, now draped in weeds of mourning, whisper, 
' 'Peace be still. ' ' 

And this we humbly beg for Jesus' sake, Amen. 

ADDRESS BY DR. EDWIN A. ALDERMAN 

President of the University of Virginia 

At Lake George last summer in the home of a dear 
common friend, looking out over a scene of peace and 
quiet, Charles Mclver and I were talking of life and 
its meaning and the flight of time that had carried 
us so swiftly past boyhood to middle life. Our moods 
alternated between the kind of boyish, unrestrained 
merriment possible only to men who have grown up 

132 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



together and a certain strain of premonition and sad- 
ness. I recall saying, "Charles, you will outlive me 
and you will probably have to write some resolutions 
or say something about me when I am gone. Make 
it short. Just say that we had a good time together, 
pounding away at real things. ' ' He answered quickly, 
1 ' Ed. Alderman, though I look stronger than you, you 
may outlive me after all, and I give you the same 
counsel. ' ' We were talking like children in the dark, 
as all of us poor mortals must talk, but I realize today 
how impossible it would be for me to speak in any 
form of stately eulogy of this strong and faithful 
friend, whom I knew so well and loved, and with 
whom I worked so intimately in the service of society. 
My very nearness to him and the elemental and vital 
character of his personality, make it most difficult for 
me to set down even this brief personal appreciation 
of him in formal sentences. 

All of us who were close to him have the impulse to 
say simply, ' ' Here was a great, strong, hopeful, buoy- 
ant, friendly soul, who loved his fellows and builded 
enduringly for their welfare, and should be forever 
honored by them." Further words seem vain. 
Certainly, I shall not seek to recount the details of 
his career today, nor to enumerate the positions he 
held or could have held; nor in any fashion, to use 
this memorial hour in a formal biography of him. 

Charles Duncan Mclver was born in a rural Scotch 
home, in the simplest part of the simplest democracy 
in America. This Scotch home was full of cleanness 

133 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



and reverence and faith in the dignity of humanity 
and in the power of knowledge, and all of its ideals 
were ideals of self-respect and manly ambition. In 
the existence of a multitude of such homes lies the 
antidote for the dangers of our over-nourished civili- 
zation and the safeguard of our republican ideals. 

I saw him for the first time in the autumn of 1878 
at Chapel Hill, whither he had preceded me by one 
year. There was no mistaking the quality of this 
great big country boy; eager, restless, purposeful, 
hopeful, with a face and an eye wherein humor and 
sympathy and shrewd discernment struggled for the 
mastery. He had already become a leader among his 
fellows. There was no better place, I think, for the 
making of leaders in the world, than Chapel Hill in 
the late seventies. The note of life was simple, 
rugged — almost primitive. Our young hearts, aflame 
with the impulses of youth, were quietly conscious of 
the vicissitudes and sufferings through which our 
fathers had just passed. "The Conquered Banner" 
and the mournful threnodies of Father Eyan were 
yielding place to songs of hope. A heroic tradition 
pervaded the place, while hope and struggle, rather 
than despair or repining, shone in the purpose of the 
resolute men who were rebuilding the famous old 
school. 

All of us were poor boys. Those who came from 
the towns looked, perhaps, a trifle more modish to 
the inexperienced eye, but they were just as poor as 
their country fellows, and had come out of just such 

134 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



simple homes of self-denial and self-sacrifice. The 
unconscious discipline and tutelage of defeat and forti- 
tude and self-restraint had cradled us all. We had 
all seen in the faces of our patient mothers and grim 
fathers something that we knew, if we could not 
express, was not despair, and somehow, life seemed 
very grand and duty easy and opportunity precious. 

Reflect upon just a few of the names of the boys 
that were there then and perhaps you will agree with 
me: Aycock, Mclver, the Winstons, Doughton, 
Strange, Peele, Phillips, Murphy, Daniels, Gattis, 
Noble, Joyner, Thomas, Pell, Battle, Dancy, Worth, 
McAllister, and many others high in industrial and 
commercial life. Student ambitions in that day tended 
almost entirely to law, or politics, or scholarship. 
The great industrial awakening, which has since 
beckoned, and now beckons, to so many of our young 
men, to take a hand in transforming our civilization 
from an agricultural into an industrial democracy, had 
not begun to make its appeal. 

After four happy years of steady growth in scholar- 
ship and character, Mclver passed from the University 
to the school room in 1881. I followed him into the 
school room in 1882, and our intimacy as fellow 
workers began in 1886, lasting unbroken and curiously 
interwoven until that quiet hour at Lake George, and 
in a deep spiritual sense, forever. He did his duty 
as an under-graduate, respecting his body and his 
spirit. He even won Greek medals, but his thought 
was on men and student issues and college policies. 

135 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



The story of his life from 1882 to 1906 is a clear, 
high story of human idealism and human achieve- 
ment, which every boy in North Carolina should know 
and ponder, and which should cause the older men 
and women who listen to the strident voices of unrest 
and pessimism, to know that the heart of this repub- 
lic is true and sound, and that a heroic and noble 
simplicity lies at the root of our life. It is not an 
eventful story. It is not a story of thrilling vicissi- 
tude or startling change of circumstance. It is a 
story of earnestness and insight, of faith and purpose. 
His marriage to a noble woman, who sustained and 
strengthened him every day of his life ; his clear sight 
of a great institution for the education of women in 
North Carolina; his brief and resistless battle for the 
attainment of that vision; a widening of that great 
conception into a passionate and whole-hearted dedi- 
cation of himself to the education of all the people; 
the expansion of his nature under the spur of these 
high ideals ; a splendid, joyous growth of his powers as 
they faced and overcame the difficulties that blocked 
his pathway ; a serene and noble satisfaction in behold- 
ing his youthful dreams embodied here in forms of 
dignity and beauty and human training ; the recogni- 
tion of his worth, and the deep national value of his 
service by the whole republic; and a sort of uncon- 
scious apotheosis of him as the most useful citizen of 
his native State ; the leader in all of its good causes — 
is there not essential grandeur in the unbroken unity 
of this upward-striving story? 

136 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



There are some scenes in our common experiences 
between 1886 and 1890 that my heart recalls, and 
that I shall mention even at the risk of bringing 
myself into a picture, which I would fain fill with his 
own glory and his own worth. The original idea of 
the establishment of the State Normal and Industrial 
College in North Carolina was undoubtedly born in 
the brain of Charles Mclver. He did not borrow the 
idea from Massachusetts or New York. The whole 
scheme forced itself upon him out of the dust of injus- 
tice and negligence right under his eyes. I recall the 
day at Black Mountain in 1886, when he spoke of 
it to me in his compelling way and won my quick 
sjnnpathy and interest in the idea. His busy brain 
and unwearying energy rapidly drew friends to the 
movement, for no one who met him failed to hear of it. 
Together we drew up the first memorial to the Legis- 
lature in its behalf, and I remember the day in 1886 
that he as chairman, and George T. Winston, Edward 
P. Moses and myself, presented this matter to the com- 
mittee on education. We knew that it was doomed, 
but we came away elated and somewhat excited over 
our first contact with legislative responsibility and 
greatness. We might not have been so elated, if we 
could have foreseen how much contact we would have 
in the years to come, though, if he were here, I believe 
he would agree with me in saying that the contact 
did us good, and surely he gave back more than he 
received. 



137 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



I recall commencement night at Chapel Hill in the 
year 1889. We were to start out in a few days on 
a new and untried experiment in North Carolina or 
the South, a deliberate effort by unique campaign 
methods to create and mould public opinion on the 
question of popular education, involving taxation 
for the benefit of others. Men like Wiley and Murphy 
and Caldwell and Scarborough had fought this fight, 
but not just in this way. We were in the twenties 
and there were young wives and children at home, 
and the work we were undertaking was a temporary 
creation, due to the suggestion of the State Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction and the good impulses 
of the Legislature, which could not quite make up its 
mind to have done with us once and for all. There 
was no precedent for what we were trying to do, 
except Horace Mann, and he seemed so far off and 
so great that each one of us would have laughed at 
the other for mentioning the comparison. I remember 
that we talked about our plans and purposes and 
difficulties until the cocks began to crow. I told 
him to let me say one more word and then let us both 
go to sleep. He replied in his hearty, wholesome 
way, that he did not propose to be put to sleep and 
let me have the last word at the same time. We 
then decided to make a night of it, and talked on 
until the sun arose. I am inclined to think it about 
the best night I have ever spent, for an intelligent 
and unselfish idea held our youth under its spell, 

138 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



and bound us for life to a service, which was not the 
service of self. As I think of it today, the grim old 
room in the Inn at Chapel Hill and the silent watches 
of that night are lit with the light that never was on 
land or sea. 

For three years, in every county of this State, we 
sought to mould public sentiment and direct public 
opinion towards the development of an adequate sys- 
tem of popular education and towards the establish- 
ment of a school for the training of teachers. Some 
day I shall hope to tell in detail the story of this 
crusade, for such it was in spirit and purpose. It 
had its discouragements and its comedies and its 
mistakes, but it was a time of full-blooded enthusiasm, 
exaltation and faith in the people, and the experience 
taught Mclver and it taught me the essential lovable- 
ness and justice and dignity of character and open 
mindedness of the average North Carolinian in a way 
we could never have otherwise learned. And some 
good seed were sown, I think, which have increased 
some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold. 
Mclver was doubtful at first of his ability as a public 
speaker, but forgetting self in his purpose, he achieved 
in an amazing way the very thing that he did not 
think himself equal to, and quickly became the most 
effective speaker for public education that I have 
known in America. It was a dull and senseless audi- 
ence that did not respond to his earnestness, the 
breathless onrush of his appeal, heated red hot in the 
glow of his personality, and lighted with a homely 

139 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



humour and power of illustration and a shrewd adap- 
tation of story and anecdote, unequaled in North Caro- 
lina since young Zeb Vance won his triumphant way. 
His task was to plead with an individualistic and con- 
servative community, hating overmuch by reason of 
robbery and suffering the very word "tax,' for a 
democratic and communal institution costing large 
sums of money and a world of patience. His weapons 
were persuasion and charm and earnestness and 
humor and pleading and sympathy. They seem 
feeble weapons as compared with the money of the 
plutocrat or the force of the despot, but they found 
the heart of this just and reasonable democracy, and 
seem to prove that the solution of our peculiar diffi- 
culties must come not by might or force but by the 
spirit of love, justice, humanity, and progress. 

Many of his striking phrases will long live in the 
annals of educational growth: "The savage alone is 
exempt from taxation." "The generations of men 
are but relays in civilization's march on its journey 
from savagery to the millennium." 

"Education is simply civilization's effort to prop- 
agate and perpetuate its life and its progress." 

"The teacher is the seed corn of civilization, and 
none but the best is good enough to use. ' ' 

* ' Ideas are worth more than acres, and the possessor 
of ideas will always hold in financial bondage those 
whose chief possession is acres of land." 

"It is plain, therefore, that the State and society, 
for the sake of their future educational interest, 

140 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



ought to decree that for every dollar spent by the 
government, State or Federal, and by philanthropists 
in the training of men, at least another dollar shall 
be invested in the work of educating womankind. ' ' 

' * If it were practicable, an educational qualification 
for matrimony would be worth more to our citizen- 
ship than an educational qualification for suffrage." 

''Finally men began to seek education not that 
they might become leaders in the State and in the 
church, but first of all, that they might be strong men, 
so that today seeing a man at college is no indication 
that he expects to be a preacher or a politician. ' ' 

In company with Major Sidney M. Finger we wrote 
the law now upon the statute books, creating this 
Institution, and selected the location for these build- 
ings, and I should be false to justice and generosity, 
if I did not here pay tribute to the earnestness and 
enthusiasm and faithful support given to us during 
these days by Sidney M. Finger. 

An interesting characteristic of the inspiring career 
of Charles Mclver was its large unity and freedom 
from complexity. In studying either the man or his 
work, one does not meet with subtleties or whimsicali- 
ties or irritating contradiction, but one beholds rather 
a large movement of beneficent purpose, struggling 
onward to perfectly clear ends, and a big hearty 
nature ever "greeting the unseen with a cheer." In 
a true sense, his earthly career began with his sight 
of this school, and it ended where it began, but behold 
the all-embracing character of such spacious single- 

141 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



mindedness ! As a consequence of this stimulating 
vision, came increased interest for popular educa- 
tion ; as a result of his philosophic grasp of the mean- 
ing of popular education to a democracy, came a 
whole great theory of civic service and community 
helpfulness and common-sense patriotism that tied 
him in closest sympathy to everything helpful, from 
hanging pictures on the walls of dreary country 
schoolhouses, to large sentimental schemes of relight- 
ing the fires of love for the homeland in the hearts 
of those who had strayed away. A clear vision, there- 
fore, and a clean consecration of himself, in the gener- 
ous ardor of youth, to the pursuit of that vision, 
wrought and moulded him into a kind of perfection 
as an American citizen, exhibiting all the moral per- 
sistence of the Puritan in a setting of sunshine and 
sympathy. 

"One who never turned his back, but marched breast for- 
ward, 
Never doubted clouds would break, 
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 
triumph, 
Held, we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, sleep, 
to wake. " 

The personality of Charles Mclver interested and 
attracted men more than any sum of his attainments. 
His scholarship was not the scholarship of the schools, 
but rather a genius for sympathy with scholarship. 
Life was his thesis and men were his books and love 

142 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



his method. The Scotch passion for metaphysics had 
passed him by, leaving in its stead a certain large 
understanding and a hearty insight that revealed 
any matter to him whole and entire. He gave the 
physical impression of being in a hurry, but he was 
never in a hurry mentally. He was a wilful man in 
a good sense, and loved to have his own way, but I 
have known no man with fewer blind prejudices to 
obscure his vision. He was not the sort of man who 
wanted everything, but the few fundamental things 
he sought, he kept a searchlight upon, and his hurry- 
ing figure could be seen moving toward them with 
resolute purpose. The freedom from hindering prej- 
udices, and this singlemindedness, gave him a fine 
genius for co-operation and made him a beautiful 
man to work with, for you knew that his pride was not 
sticking out to get wounded, or his feelings to get 
hurt, or his toes to be trod upon. You were dealing 
with sanity and good will that knew when to com- 
promise, when to surrender and when to fight. Men 
called him a good politician and so he was, if you will 
let me define a good politician as one who knows how 
to compel men to do deeds of public service that they 
would not have otherwise thought of. 

He was a royal good fighter, too, if you will let 
me define a fighter as a man who is clear as to his pur- 
pose, who will not be gainsaid, who will not be set 
aside, who will not be cajoled, and who will come to 
his point. Besides, he was a Scotchman and had to 



143 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEK 



fight something, and ignorance was his natural foe. 
Men of strong character are sometimes good haters. 
Mclver was a very poor hater. He could not hate 
men and always exhibited a sort of pained surprise, 
unaccompanied with any ill will or malignancy when 
men despitefully used him. He simply could not 
waste his moral strength in that most immoral of all 
passions, hatred. If I were to ask what was the 
greatest thing about Charles Mclver, I would say 
that it was his interest and sympathy and love for 
men and women, not attractive men and women alone, 
or good men and women, or great men and women, — 
but men and women. To him had come perhaps 
dimly the feeling that in rights and opportunities 
the final manhood of earth will be ''classless and 
tribeless and nationless". A crowd always interested 
him and stirred his powers no matter how weary he 
was, and he moved about the crowd with a vast human 
interest shining in his face. I have seen him stop 
and speak to a young boy, half -formed and immature, 
with an interest infusing his countenance, like that 
which shines in the face of a collector, who has just 
found a new object for his collections. The story of 
the rise of men is full of men like Thomas Jefferson, 
who loved humanity, and were willing to die for it, 
but often they were shy of the units in the mass of 
men. Mclver loved men and women as he found 
them and they returned his love. The thing of deepest 
interest in the world to him was to see people rise. 



144 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



He was happy when they succeeded and sorry when 
they failed. Few men have worked through so busy 
a life, with so much sympathy and appreciation. He 
simply got what he gave. 

Men who build or develop institutions, men who 
strengthen or preserve social forces of their times, do 
so through the exercise of faith and enthusiasm and 
patience and courage and energy, and these words 
might form a brief biography of Charles Mclver. As 
our revolutionary age demanded the prophet of human 
freedom, and the civil war period demanded steadfast 
courage, and the industrial period the man of imagi- 
nation and daring, so the decades between 1880 and 
1906 in Southern history demanded men with faith 
in education as a great agency for moulding social 
and economic forces, and with power of personality 
and of brain to influence the most majestic of all 
human agencies — public opinion. Our institutions 
needed to be democratized ; our thought to be national- 
ized; our life to be industrialized, and the whole 
process was one of education. The school was the heart 
of the South 's problem and Mclver saw that truth, 
and he will live forever in the history of this State as 
a great leader in this movement of transformation. 
It was, besides, his unique distinction to build outright 
a great institution. The State Normal and Industrial 
College, planted in the love and in the hearts of the 
people, will grow fairer in outward form, and richer 
in inward power, and as it grows the great traditions 



145 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



of his devotion will grow with it. In Emerson's fine 
phrase, this institution will be for all time the length- 
ened shadow of one man 's life. 

It is the purpose of those who love him to erect a 
statue to his memory. In so doing they will honor 
themselves and teach objectively a great ethical lesson 
which should not be denied our youth, but this School 
is his real monument. An institution of learning is 
the best earthly type of immortality. It is the only 
thing under the heavens that grows younger and 
stronger with the years. It is a creature of deathless 
function, of endless needs, of immortal youth. Great 
grand-daughters will journey to it as to a pilgrimage, 
while young children will be playing about its knees, 
and the influence of all influences that will guide its 
life will be the influence of Charles Duncan Mclver. 

As for me, his death struck close at the foundations 
of my life. It was a thing my mind had never con- 
templated, for a certain unconquerable boyishness in 
him precluded the very thought of silence and the 
grave. I could not think of death in connection with 
this happy-starred, full-blooded man, in love with life 
and work. His passing closes for me a cycle in my 
life, a companionship of dreaming and work, of hope 
and accomplishment, associated with the morning of 
life. Such work as he did must always go on and 
I would fain be in it and of it, but his absence some- 
how gives to it a kind of loneliness and quite another 
hue and quality. After I left North Carolina, by the 



146 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



strange coincidence to which he often alluded, we 
drew closer to each other in actual intimacy than ever 
before. Benign fortune set us to doing over an area 
extending from the Gulf to the Potomac, what we had 
once tried to do over the hills and valleys of North 
Carolina. We met often each year, sleeping in the 
same rooms and talking in the night. I saved my 
stories' for him, and he saved his for me, and his were 
always better than mine. He incarnated North Caro- 
lina to me, suggesting its wholesomeness, telling me 
its incidents, its ambitions, its progress, and bringing 
me news of our old friends — those that had died and 
those that had married and those that were fighting 
the battles of ambition and life. Each meeting with 
him was a bath of youth and good feeling and courage, 
that left me cleaner and stronger and fresher for my 
own tasks. I shall miss him sorely in this breathing 
world, though he is not dead either to my sight or 
spirit. Not only is he alive in the vague spiritual 
sense of the choir invisible, moulding the ideals and 
purposes of men, but he is alive and vital somewhere 
upon some mount of faith, and busy at work upon 
some good cause. 

"O, strong soul, by what shore 
Tarriest thou now? For that force 
Surely has not been left vain. 
Somewhere surely, afar, 
In the sounding laborhouse vast 
Of being, is practiced that strength, 
Zealous, beneficent, firm." 

147 



CHARLES DUNCAN MpIVEB 



ADDEESS BY DE. GEOEGE T. WINSTON 

President of The North. Carolina College of Agriculture and 

Mechanic Arts 

"There is nothing better than that a man should 
rejoice in his work." So spoke the preacher thou- 
sands of years ago. If he were here today, he would 
see it verified in the life of him whose memory we 
cherish. Mdver's epitaph should be, "He rejoiceth 
in his work." 

Though cut off in the very flower of manhood, his 
life was long, if measured by work performed. At 
the early age of twenty he found his mission in life. 
Not a day passed from that time until the very 
instant of his death that all his faculties and energies 
were not employed in public service and for the 
public good. He lived a quarter of a century as 
teacher, school organizer, public speaker, philanthro- 
pist, patriot, promoter of education in every form and 
of every movement for the public good. The public 
services of this man in twenty-five years repaid North 
Carolina her expenditures for over a century in 
establishing and maintaining the State University. 
He was the real Father of the Public Schools. His 
life work was complete. He worked so lovingly, so 
zealously and so efficiently, that others now may easily 
bring to completion that work whose foundations and 
lines of development he so wisely planned. He was 
the greatest worker of his generation. 



148 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



How we cherish the memory of his sunny face, his 
buoyant manner, his lively action! We shall seek 
to preserve in marble and in brass the lineaments of 
his face and figure, to remain for centuries a memo- 
rial of his life. May we not also transmit to pos- 
terity a nobler and more enduring memorial by imi- 
tating in our own lives the imperishable lineaments 
of his immortal spirit and transmitting them for per- 
petual imitation to the youth of the State? He had 
wisdom without guile; charity without sentimen- 
tality; prudence without timidity; strength without 
rudeness ; gentleness without weakness ; humor with- 
out selfishness; and everlasting confidence in the 
triumph of truth and justice ! 



ADDRESS BY DR. F. P. VENABLE 

President of the University of North Carolina 

I have come, not to make a speech, but to mingle 
my sorrow with yours over the friend whom we all 
have lost. And yet the busy brain, the great, loyal, 
loving heart is stilled, and the brave spirit with its 
matchless energy is at rest. 

How unstinted he gave of his wisdom and strength 
to his friends is known to you, and the supreme sacri- 
fice of his life was given to the work which he loved, 
for he wore himself out in the service of his people. 
The life which he might have lived was only two-thirds 
lived out, but how full were the years, how splendid 
the results achieved! 

149 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Others may tell you of the work that he did, of the 
enduring monument which he built in this Institu- 
tion, — I have come to mourn him as my friend. 

Years ago, when his life work was opening out 
before him and the splendid opportunity for service 
was filling him with enthusiasm, he came to me, a young 
teacher absorbed in my science, and by his forceful 
plea touched my soul also with something of his 
burning desire for the education and uplift of all 
the people of our State. It has been a great work 
and in it he has had no peer. I am glad that he has 
been my friend. I am proud that he was trained and 
nurtured by the University, the great school of the 
people, and that he drew his inspiration there. 

Year by year I have followed his work with pride 
and sympathy. Nt^have watched the development of 
his powers, his growth as an effective public speaker, 
as an organizer, as a controller of men, his abounding 
energy and his multiform usefulness, I have feared 
the effect upon his health of his self-sacrificing labors 
and the constant round of toil for others, and now the 
end has come and the sacrifice has been made. 

When the great responsibility of my present work 
was laid upon me, he came to my aid as few others 
have done. With a loyal and most helpful friendship 
he stood by my side. The University has many loyal 
sons, but there was no one who loved her more unself- 
ishly or served her more devotedly in all time of need 
than that high, brave soul whom we mourn today. 



150 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



The University, beloved by him, mourns for her 
noble son, and in a common grief clasps hands with 
her younger sister, his hope, his pride, his splendid 
monument through all years to come. 

O noble soul, beloved teacher, loyal friend, well 
done ! 

ADDEESS BY DE. JAMES E. BEOOKS 

Representing the Guilford County Alumni Association of the State 

University 

This is the age of wealth. The dominant ambition 
of the man of today is the accumulation of great riches. 
There is no longer a learned profession whose chief 
members are not a prey to the attractive business of 
piling up silver and gold. These men appear to count 
their lives well spent when this is accomplished. More 
prominence and wider discussion are given to the 
rich man and his affairs than to any other personage 
in our civilization. He occupies first rank in the 
esteem of public opinion. Deference and awe are 
lavishly paid him by all classes of society. There is 
more current literature on a dozen kings of finance 
than there is on a hundred of the most eminent 
scholars and scientists living. 

During the past twenty-five years the art of money 
getting has eclipsed all others. Enlisted in its cause 
have been a majority of the most powerful minds of 
the world, and especially is this true in our own 
country. The most resourceful and ingenious intel- 
lects from all professions have put aside their chosen 

151 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



work and engaged in its employ. The ambitious man 
of high attainments will quit the pulpit, the bar, the 
bench, the chair of philosophy, or even the alluring 
charm of political preferment, to become a captain 
of industry. The glamor of wealth entices the heart 
away from careers where men are required to fight, 
suffer and be misunderstood. 

With the history of the world before us with which 
to compare and interpret our own time, we are com- 
pelled to call this age the Age of Avarice. Nor is 
this what posterity has said of us; it is the verdict 
we render against ourselves. 

Doctor Charles Duncan Mclver was not of this type. 
He was made of better stuff. He cared nothing for 
wealth, though he thought the teacher and profes- 
sional man in general too poorly paid. He had no 
desire for luxury or display, and yet he longed for the 
day when the worn-out professional man should have 
substance laid away to soften his declining years. 
Great wealth could not tempt him. He was too 
intense, too much concerned about his work to put 
his heart into the cheap things money could buy. 
When he reached man's estate the vision of a great 
mission came to him and never for an hour from the 
time he went from our beloved University till that 
September afternoon when his great spirit took its 
flight from time into eternity did he lose sight of that 
vision. 

Great enterprise does not stagger great minds — it 
inspires them. It brings them forth. The neglected 

152 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



woman was as great an inspiration to Charles D. 
Mclver as the neglected individual was to Thomas 
Jefferson. Her neglect brought him forth. When 
he came upon the scene, our State had a splendid and 
time-honored University for the education of its men, 
but it had shamefully neglected to provide for the 
education of its women. Prospective students for 
college training were sought for in homes of college- 
bred mothers and among the well-to-do. This man 
went into the highways and hedges over our entire 
State and everywhere preached the doctrine that the 
State owed as much to its daughters as it did to its 
sons, and he lived to see his doctrine triumph. 

Napoleon said of himself that he could not be repro- 
duced — that it was not necessary that his like should 
come again. So with Dr. Mclver. He cannot be repro- 
duced — the times will not call for his like again. He 
completed his era. The man who follows him will 
have a new work to do — a new task awaits him. Dr. 
Mclver completed his own work. 

The Man of Destiny cannot be swerved from his 
purpose. The pretender falls a victim to the enemies 
along the way. Nothing but God can change the plans 
of the man of destiny. The splendid scholar may fill 
the university chair and even enlarge its influence ; 
his attainments may be of the highest order, but he 
is only filling a place made by someone else. The 
Man of Destiny creates his own sphere. Dr. Mclver 
was a man of destiny; he created his own sphere, 
and no power save the hand of Providence could 



153 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



have thwarted him in his enterprise. He was the 
greatest force and personality our State has produced 
in our day. He stands alone in the uniqueness of his 
character. 

It is my sincere conviction that no greater man 
than he was ever born on North Carolina soil. We 
have produced great men, but we have not said much 
about them. We have been content to read the 
glorified deeds of gifted men of other sections of our 
country, written by admiring historians of their 
respective States, while our own great actors have 
been neglected. 

The history of this man 's life will be written. Some 
man, inspired by the heroic endeavor of this great 
Carolinian, who gave himself for his fellow-man, will 
tell the true story of his life. It will be an inspiration 
to every child in the land. 

Mighty in spirit, mighty in deed, he fought a good 
fight, he kept the faith, he finished his course. 

ADDEESS BY MISS MAEY K. APPLEWHITE 

Of the Baptist University for Women 

Representing Former Students of The State Normal and Industrial 

College 

It is my pleasure and privilege to speak for the 
four thousand students of the State Normal College 
and to pay their tribute of love and appreciation to 
the man who was to them more than the efficient 
President of this College, who was their inspiration, 
their counsellor and their friend. 

154 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



From a student's first correspondence regarding 
entrance into the College, Dr. Mclver's swaying influ- 
ence was perceived. On entering the College his strong 
personality was felt by every individual student. In 
a short time she felt herself the possessor of a true 
friend. Narrow opinions were changed to broader 
views and the horizon of girl-life soon enlarged while, 
even more than that, it was deemed a privilege to enter 
largely into the activities of college life as a prepara- 
tion for that broader sphere of activity that lay 
beyond graduation. 

As the years drew nigh graduation, his influence 
became more keenly felt and he impressed upon each 
class the fact that their graduation meant only the 
beginning of work as a citizen and as a student. 

To each one he seemed to give a solemn charge : 
Serve thy State ; and he inspired each individual with 
a passion for human progress. His high ideals of citi- 
zenship were reflected in the life of every student who, 
as the higher type of woman, the citizen woman, is seek- 
ing to help on the spirit of uplift in her own State. 

As counsellor and friend in college, Dr. Mclver was 
more than even that to the Normal girl when, standing 
alone, as it were, she had begun her life work. No 
matter what phase of life — were it the home, the 
teaching profession, the business world, he was ever 
ready to help by his sincere interest, his faith in her, 
and his tolerant and loving sympathy with all the 
little trials that came to her. 



155 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



And now that his life among us "has of a sudden 
been stopped" we wonder how our work can go on. 
Who will give us the friendly advice, the wise counsel ? 
Whence will come the inspiration that his words and 
presence always imparted? Almost could we be 
bowed with our grief and loss, and yet, remembering 
the spirit of him whom we loved, we cannot. What 
Dr. Mclver has been to the students of the college 
can never be taken from them. His influence is 
immortal. His was not the spirit of useless repining, 
his was the spirit of facing bravely each situation, 
turning his face to the light and laboring with all 
his strength. 

Do you remember one of his favorite quotations 
from Owen Meredith ? 

' ' No life can be pure in its purpose and strong in its strife 
And all life not be purer and stronger thereby." 

His influence upon all students illustrates the force 
of those oft-quoted lines. His life was pure, his pur- 
pose strong, therefore our lives are purer and stronger 
for his spirit among us. 

For all that he would have us stand for in North 
Carolina or elsewhere, — that will we endeavor to be. 
This Institution, the fruit of his thought and love 
and labor, shall stand as his work only begun, and by 
his loving influence it shall continue to grow. We 
stand, as we have always stood, ready to uphold it 
with our loyalty. 



156 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



As a tribute to his memory, we bring ourselves, all 
girded and ready to face the problems and to carry on 
the work which he, looking down the coming years 
with the vision of a seer, saw would be ours to face 
and do. 

ADDRESS BY HON. J. Y. JOYNER 

Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina 

' ' O for the touch of a vanished hand, 
And the sound of a voice that is still!" 

Could I obey the dictates of my heart, I should 
pay the tribute of a sacred silence to my dead friend 
today amid these scenes hallowed by a thousand mem- 
ories of him. My love and admiration are too great 
to find expression in matter-moulded forms of speech, 
but use and wont must have their due and I, too, 
must try to speak. 

He was the truest friend, the warmest-hearted, the 
most generous, the most actively helpful, the most 
self -forgetful. He loved his friends and they knew 
and the whole world knew that he loved them. He 
sought their counsel, loved their companionship, and 
found their approval sweet. He was ever on the alert 
for opportunities to help them and to enable them to 
help themselves. He often saw such opportunities 
and seized them for his friends before they saw them 
for themselves. I have known him unasked to lay 
down his work and travel across the State at his own 
expense, without reward or the hope of reward, to do 



157 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



a friend a kindness. He never allowed anyone to 
speak evil of his friends in his presence, or to misrep- 
resent or misunderstand them unrebuked and uncor- 
rected. 

And he was the friend of all mankind. All who 
knew him were his friends. He had the genius of 
friendliness. He made friends with strangers more 
easily than any man I ever knew. There was in him 
that touch of nature that dwells in every elemental 
man "that makes the whole world kin" and made 
him at home and at ease with the learned and the 
unlearned, with the high and with the humble. It 
was this that gave to his friendliness that personal 
touch that made so many his personal friends and 
filled so many with a sense of personal loss in his 
death. 

He loved his State and his people. He was con- 
secrated to their interests and jealous of their honor 
and reputation. Love of North Carolina and her peo- 
ple became a positive force in the life of every student 
that ever came within the circle of his influence. 

He was full of hope and good cheer, of sunshine 
and of sympathy. He scattered these wherever he 
went. His presence was a joy and a benediction. In 
it, selfishness was shamed, the tongue of slander was 
silenced, littleness, narrowness and prejudice slunk 
away. 

"The weak and the gentle, 
The ribald and rude, 
He took as he found them 
And did them all good." 

158 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



He was full of enthusiasm and his enthusiasm was 
contagious. He was full of courage and his courage, 
too, was contagious. He was full of strength, and the 
weak grew strong and the strong grew stronger, under 
his influence. 

He was full of energy, tireless, persistent energy. 
He was full of honesty, moral and intellectual, private 
and public, old-fashioned, rugged honesty. It beamed 
from every feature of his face ; it shone in every act 
of his life ; it rang in every tone of his voice. There 
was nothing hidden about him because there was noth- 
ing to hide. 

He was full of faith in God and man, and faith 
in the final triumph of the right. Therefore, he never 
gave up a fight for right and was never cast down by 
defeat. The blood of the Scotch Covenanter flowed 
in his veins and devotion to duty and consecration to 
conviction were ruling passions with him. He was 
ever impatient with the lack of these in others. He 
was a hard fighter for what he believed in, but he 
always fought a clean fight; he always hit above the 
belt ; he always respected a generous foe ; he bore no 
malice when the fight was over. 

He had "a hand as open as day to melting charity." 
He could never turn a deaf ear to any cry of need 
or to any call for any worthy object. How much 
he gave away will never be known until the great 
record is opened at the great white throne. Money 
to him was "so much trash as may be grasped thus" 
save as it could be made to serve him and to serve 
others. 159 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



He had large capacity for enjoying the good things 
of this life and believed in enjoying them in all proper 
ways. Often have I heard him quote with heart- 
iest approval the words of the old showman in 
Dickens, ''The people muth be amused." In his 
philosophy of life, pessimism, puritanism, pharisaism, 
asceticism had no place ; religion pure and undefiled 
had large place. 

He was a man of great intellectual power and of 
rare versatility — a masterful man. Power dwelt in 
him and went out from him. . 

There was in him much of saving commonsense; 
much of creative and constructive power; much of 
that gift of vision vouchsafed only unto greatness. 
He was a fine judge of men. He took their measure 
with almost unerring judgment. He saw their faults, 
their weakness, was patient with them and pitied 
them. He saw their virtues, their strength, admired 
them and used them. He never allowed the one to 
blind him to the other. He had the rarest power 
that I have ever known of finding the best in men 
and getting the best out of men. He was a great leader 
of men. 

Without any of the arts of the orator, he was the 
most convincing, the most irresistible speaker that 
I have ever heard. He was too intense, too earnest 
to employ paltry decorations of speech. He spoke 
directly and simply as one having authority. He had 
a message and felt — woe is me if I do not deliver it. 
He forgot himself in his message. Men heard him 

160 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



gladly, thought not of the manner of the man or of 
the forms of his speech, but never forgot the message 
that fell from his lips, the fire of earnestness and 
enthusiasm that was struck from his soul as he spoke, 
and kindled fires in theirs as they listened. 

He would have been successful in almost any calling 
— what a great lawyer he could have been; what a 
supurb leader in politics and public life; what a 
splendid captain of industry in any line; what a 
prince of promoters in any great commercial enter- 
prise ! He could have been almost anything he chose 
to be. 

All his splendid powers he joyously laid upon the 
altar of public service. I believe that God anointed 
him and set him apart as a servant to his people. 
He heard the call to service and followed it as singly 
and as devotedly as ever noble knight in Arthurian 
legend followed the Holy Grail. He had a high ideal 
of public service and to it he subordinated every 
tempting offer of private gain or personal aggrandize- 
ment. Public education was his chosen field of ser- 
vice. With the clearsightedness of greatness, he saw 
that universal education was the only hope of univer- 
sal emancipation and the only safe foundation for 
the broadest democracy. He saw, too, that the surest, 
shortest road to universal education was the education 
of woman, the mother and teacher, and, through her, 
the education of all the children of men. To this 
special field, therefore, he devoted his chief attention, 
but there was no department of education which did 

161 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



not receive his helpful touch. His conception of public 
service, however, was not narrowed to the one field of 
public education. He was active in every field that 
offered opportunity for public service in social, politi- 
cal and commercial circles, — in his town, in his State 
and in the nation. 

This was the man, Charles D. Mclver, as I knew 
him — great in mind, great in heart, great in service 
to his fellow-men — how great, men did not fully under- 
stand while he walked beside them, but know now 
by the lengthened and ever lengthening shadow of 
his life that death has thrown across the State, across 
the South, across the nation. He is gone! To those 
of us who knew him best and loved him most, life 
can never be the same again, there can be no other 
friend like him. 

"He is not dead, he doth not sleep — 
He hath awakened from the dream of life. ' ' 
1 ' 'Tis Death is dead, not he. ' ' 



162 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



STATUE IN BRONZE 
GOVERNOR'S PROCLAMATION 

To the People of North Carolina: 

The life work of Charles D. Mclver is ended. For 
twenty-five years he served his State with fidelity, 
zeal and efficiency not surpassed in her annals. No 
one has rendered the State a greater service. 

It is now the high duty and privilege of the 
people, whom he served with unselfish devotion, to 
manifest their grateful appreciation of his life and 
character by a memorial that will transmit his mem- 
ory to posterity and be a perpetual incentive to the 
youth of the State to emulate his example. 

An heroic statue in bronze, * * to stand 
on the grounds of the great Institution that he created, 
has been selected by general consent as a most fitting 
memorial. ****** 

In order to raise the necessary funds and take 
other steps for securing the statue, there should be 
at least six committees, representing the varied 
interests promoted by his life, to solicit subscriptions 
from the people. I hereby appoint the following 
chairmen of these committees : 

1. For the Teachers and Children of the Public Schools: 
Hon. J. Y. Joyner, Ealeigh, N. C. 

2. For the State Normal and Industrial College and its 
Alumnse: Miss Gertrude Mendenhall, Greensboro, N. C. 

3. For the Women of North Carolina: Mrs. Lindsay 
Patterson, Winston-Salem, N. C. 

163 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



4. For the University, Colleges and Academies: Dr. F. P. 
Venable, Chapel Hill, N. C. 

5. For the Men of North Carolina: Col. W. H. Osborne, 
Greensboro, N. C. 

6. For the Press of North Carolina: Hon. Josephus 
Daniels, Ealeigh, N. C. 

I request each chairman to select a full committee, 
of not less than five, and to organize the same imme- 
diately for active work. The chairmen of these com- 
mittees shall constitute a general executive committee. 

Charles D. Mclver's entire life was given for the 
better education of all our women, the improvement 
of the educational opportunities of all our children, 
the uplifting of all our citizenship, and the elevation 
of all our ideals of civic service. His work touched 
helpfully all classes of our people. Surely, now, we 
will all vie with each other in establishing this 
memorial. R. B. Glenn, 

Governor of North Carolina. 

McIVEE LOAN AND SCHOLAESHIP FUND 

From The North Carolina Journal of Education 

On Tuesday afternoon of November the twentieth, 
a large body of alumnae and former students of the 
State Normal College met in the Administration 
Building. This meeting was held immediately after 
the memorial exercises. There were representatives 
present from every class that' has gone out from the 
Institution since its organization. 

164 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



The object of this meeting was to establish some 
permanent memorial that would fittingly express the 
love of the students for their great teacher. Several 
plans were proposed, but the entire body united on the 
following motion, which was offered by Miss Mary 
Applewhite : "I move that we establish as an ever- 
lasting memorial to Dr. Mclver, a Mclver Loan and 
Scholarship Fund, with the understanding that, if 
at any time we see that we can aid the Board of 
Trustees in carrying out any specific plan, our funds 
may be for the time diverted into such channel, but 
to revert afterwards to the original purpose." 

It is the purpose of the alumna? and former stu- 
dents to raise a large fund, and to call upon all the 
women in North Carolina to contribute to this fund, 
for it was Dr. Mclver 's life purpose to lift woman- 
hood in his own State. No definite amount was fixed 
upon, but it is the desire of these young women to 
raise such a fund that no needy student may be denied 
an education, but that the Mclver Loan and Scholar- 
ship Fund shall be sufficiently large to assist every 
one who is unable to provide the necessary means, but 
who desires a college education. 



165 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



McIVEE MEMOEIAL DAY 

From Preface to North Carolina Day Pamplet 

To the Teacher: 

We have deemed it wise and proper to turn aside 
this year from our plan of celebrating North Carolina 
Day in the public schools by the study of the great 
events in the past history of the State in chronological 
order to let the children study the life and character 
of one who, in years to come, will be recognized as 
the greatest educational leader of our day and as a 
great central figure in the educational and industrial 
development of our State. We wish this day to be 
devoted, therefore, to a reverent study of the life, 
character, and unselfish service of Charles D. Mclver, 
the children's friend, the teacher's friend, the State's 
friend, the effective and courageous champion of all 
that vitally affected the interests of these. 

We know no more effective means of teaching to 
the children of this generation the all-important lesson 
of civic service and civic duty, of inspiring them with 
the highest ideal of patriotism and right living and 
of inculcating in them the best educational doctrines 
than the study of the splendid object-lesson in all 
to be found in the simple story of the life and teach- 
ings of this man. 

Every child in North Carolina ought to contribute 
something to the fund for the erection of an heroic 
bronze statue to his memory. Such contribution 
would be an object-lesson to each child, never to be 

166 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



forgotten, in properly honoring the memory of a great 
teacher who unselfishly devoted his life to the children 
and the State. * * * * * 

Very truly yours, 

J. Y. Joyner, 

Superintendent Public Instruction. 

McIVER MEMORIAL, EXERCISES OBSERVED BY THE 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

From The North Carolina Journal of Education 

North Carolina Day this year will be celebrated as 
"Melver Memorial Day," in honor of the late Charles 
Duncan Melver, and on the frontispiece of the pam- 
phlet will appear a splendid half-tone engraving of 
that orator, educational statesman and teacher. The 
date named this year is Friday, December 14th. 

The program is as follows : 



' ' The Old North State ' '— By William Gaston. 

Charles Duncan Melver — A Sonnet by Prof. W. C. Smith, 
of the State Normal and Industrial College. 

Charles Duncan Melver — A Sketch by R. D. W. Connor, 
of the State Department of Education. 

"The Coronach ' '—By Sir Walter Scott. 

"He Died Poor That He Might Make Others Rich"— 
By Josephus Daniels, Editor of the News and Observer. 

Charles D. Melver as I Knew Him — By J. Y. Joyner. 

America — By F. S. Smith. 

Some Stories of Charles D. Melver — By J. Y. Joyner. 

Southern Educational Problems — Extracts from Addresses 
by Charles D. Melver. 

Ho! for Carolina"— By W. B. Harrell. 

167 



i t 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



The subject for discussion this year is a departure 
from the rule of the past four years, which has been 
to study the history of the various sections of the 
State. But it is fitting that the public school pupils 
throughout the State should have brought close to 
their attention the life of this man who has done 
so much for the cause of education in North Carolina 
and in whose death the State has lost her greatest 
educational leader. 

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 

Press Correspondence from Chapel Hill 

The next number of the University Record, soon 
to be issued from the press, will contain a sketch 
of the life of the late Dr. Charles D. Mclver, written 
by a member of the University faculty. Dr. Mclver 
was a most loyal alumnus of the Institution, and 
a deep loss is here felt on account of his death. There 
was general and profound sadness among the students 
Tuesday morning when President Venable announced 
Dr. Mclver 's death, and spoke briefly but fittingly 
of the life and service of this man and of the State's 
loss in his death. Later in the day the old college bell 
was tolled as a mark of respect to his memory. 

Dr. Mclver 's devotion to the University never 
lagged during the twenty-five years elapsing between 
the time of his graduation and his death. During 
this period Dr. Mclver has failed to attend only 
one University commencement. In recognition of 
his ability and enthusiasm as an educator the Univer- 

168 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



sity twice conferred honorary degrees upon him. 
About ten years ago he was given the degree of Doctor 
of Literature, and two years ago the degree of Doc- 
tor of Laws was conferred upon him. 

DAVIDSON COLLEGE 

Special Correspondence to Charlotte Observer 

Davidson, Sept. 24. — President Smith after chapel 
yesterday morning addressed the students on the life 
and services to Church and State of the late Charles 
D. Mclver. This was the first opportunity offering 
for a memorial service in honor of the distinguished 
educator since Dr. Smith's return from the funeral 
in Greensboro. His remarks and eulogistic review 
of the dead man 's work in behalf of education and his 
unselfish devotion to the cause that he espoused in 
early manhood and toiled for through twenty-five 
years were heard with manifest interest. This life- 
story is truly one that has in it inspiration and 
encouragement for any noble-hearted and aspiring 
youth, and the example is one that any man might be 
proud to imitate closely. Dr. Smith spoke of his 
struggle against the lack of early advantages, such 
as wealth and influential friends might have given 
him; how, without any "boosting" from outside, but 
only by his indomitable pluck and energy and strength 
and determination, united with health of body and 
fine mental capacity, he climbed to positions of honor 
and usefulness and to a degree of popularity that it is 

169 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



no exaggeration to say would have placed him in the 
governorship had he desired it. * * * 

What were the special elements contributing to such 
success? First, his uncommon, marvelous energy. 
It was no unusual thing to hear him described as a 
"steam engine." As there is no true success for a 
lazy man, so there is the most marked success for a 
man who knows not what laziness is. A leading 
citizen of Greensboro, he was on every committee 
where there was special work to be done, and usually 
Dr. Mclver was the committee, so far as the labor 
and the responsibility were concerned. 

Second, his unselfish devotion to things outside of 
himself and his own personal interests. He gave 
himself to the upbuilding of the State Normal College 
and nothing could tempt him to abandon that work. 
* * His leisure time was all spent in lecturing 
and working in the interest of education * * 

Third, his warm heart and kindly nature that 
made friends, disarmed those who would fight him 
and made him universally beloved. Among those 
who knew him there were not two camps, one of foes 
and one of friends — all men esteemed him. 

Fourth, earnest, faithful consistent Christian 
character. This, after all, was the basis of his other 
virtues and excellencies, this was the root from which 
sprang all the other graces and qualities that adorned 
his life. He is justly entitled to be called a great 
man, great in his aims and ideals and plans and in 
the work accomplished. 



170 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



WAKE FOREST COLLEGE 

Special to Daily Industrial News 

Wake Forest College, Sept. 19. — Yesterday morn- 
ing at chapel exercises President Poteat spoke of Dr. 
Mclver 's usefulness to the State and said, in part: 

"It is fitting that we should pause this morning 
because of a matter that is of concern to all enlight- 
ened citizens of North Carolina. Dr. Mclver was a 
man . of sunny, genial disposition and consequently 
made friends everywhere. There is no man probably 
in North Carolina who has done so much for the 
public schools of the State, and he, probably more 
than any other man, deserves credit for placing our 
public schools in their present system. * * 

"Dr. Mclver is probably most remembered for what 
he has done for the girls of the State. Not only has 
he been a representative of the girls of North Carolina, 
claiming for them an education, but in most respects 
stands out in prominence for having brought about 
opportunities for the obtaining by the girls of an 
education equal to that of the men. Through such 
efforts as these the State Normal College came into 
existence. 

"The death of such a man is a public calamity." 

TRINITY COLLEGE 

Special Correspondence to Charlotte Observer 

At chapel exercises yesterday morning (September 
19th,) Dr. Kilgo spoke of the great loss to the State 

171 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



caused by the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver and, 
as a token of the high esteem and admiration in which 
he was held by Trinity College, the national flag, 
which floats each day over the campus, was lowered 
to half mast and so remained during the day. 

GUILFORD COLLEGE 

Press Correspondence 

Guilford College, Sept. 18. — The faculty and stu- 
dent body of Guilford College realize very keenly the 
loss to the State in the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, 
President of the State Normal and Industrial College. 
In the chapel exercises this morning President Hobbs 
spoke of the great life of the deceased president. 
He said in part : 

"We recognize in the death of our friend, Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, the removal from amongst us of 
the greatest champion of popular education that the 
State has produced, a man of great energy, tireless 
perseverance and undaunted courage. His keen sense 
of discernment, his almost unequaled power of argu- 
mentation, and his popular and even captivating 
method of oratory, along with his devotion, amounting 
to a consecration of his entire being to the cause of 
education, combined to make Dr. Mclver a great man 
and have won for him a name not only in North Caro- 
lina and throughout the South, but in the entire 
nation. 

"He saw twenty-five years ago what was the vital 
need of North Carolina and worked for a definite end 



172 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



day and night, and produced results that have seldom, 
if ever, been equaled in any part of our country. He 
was called of God, I believe, to champion the cause 
of education at a time when no one could have suc- 
ceeded but a born reformer. He possessed the quali- 
ties specially fitted to arouse communities and the 
entire State to the absolute necessity of education to 
preserve the life of the Commonwealth through the 
training of young people for service. Dr. Mclver 
accomplished a work for women that will perpetuate 
his name forever in the history of North Carolina; 
and the State Normal College stands as a monument 
to his genius and to his splendid power of achieve- 
ment. ' ' 

WHITSETT INSTITUTE 

Special to Charlotte Observer 

Whitsett, Sept. 20. — In speaking to the students 
of Whitsett at chapel service this morning concerning 
the life of the late Dr. Charles D. Mclver, Dr. W. T. 
Whitsett said in part : 

"A friend of humanity and a prince among teach- 
ers has fallen asleep. Dr. Mclver was interested not 
alone in his special work for the women of the State, 
but felt a deep interest in all things that looked 
toward the advancing of humanity along all nobler 
and higher lines. He was a splendid type of the 
citizen-teacher, and as a man of affairs ranked with 
the best. The results of his study and thought he 
freely gave to the world that all might share in the 
good of his conclusions. His vitalizing influence was 

173 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



felt deeply in Greensboro, the city he loved so well, 
and in Guilford, his adopted county, but it did not 
stop there; it went out over North Carolina and the 
entire nation. 

"His faith in the ultimate triumph of that which 
was best was so strong that he would rather suffer 
defeat today, and triumph in the future, than to yield 
to his convictions along the lines of his higher efforts. 
Among the teachers of the entire South he was a 
mighty force, and wherever two or three were gathered 
together to plan for the betterment of our children 
there he was always hopeful and willing to toil and 
labor that others might be helped. 

"The entire educational world will mourn his sad 
death sincerely and it will be long until we can recon- 
cile ourselves to feel that we shall hear his inspiring 
voice no more ; but his influence is eternal and will 
always move among us to help on to higher ends/' 



OAK KIDGE INSTITUTE 
Special Correspondence to Charlotte Observer 

Chapel exercises yesterday morning (September 
19th) were converted into memorial exercises in honor 
of the late Dr. Charles D. Mclver. Addresses were 
made by the principals of the school and others. 

OXFORD SEMINARY 

Raleigh News and Observer 

Oxford, N. C, Sept. 20. — At the close of chapel 
service this morning President Hobgood paid the 
following tribute to the memory of President Mclver : 

174 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



"When a life of high ideals and noble purposes 
passes out, it is fitting and helpful to pause a while 
and consider this life. Such a life was Charles D. 
Mclver's. In common with thousands of others, I 
mourn his death. He was my warm personal friend, 
whom I greatly admired. His removal from the 
ranks of the educators of North Carolina is the 
greatest loss that has occurred within my recollection. 
I do not hesitate to say that in my opinion he has 
affected the educational interests of the State in a 
greater degree than any other man that has ever lived 
in it. I remember well his first appearance in the 
Teachers' Assembly, in which body he soon rose to 
great influence. He was the prime mover in the 
establishment of the Normal College at Greensboro, 
which is his monument. He was chairman of the 
committee appointed at several sessions to memo- 
rialize the Legislature for the establishment of this 
College; and knowing how to influence men, and 
thoroughly persevering, he, with President Alderman, 
of the University of Virginia, his able coadjutor, 
finally succeeded in inducing the Legislature to estab- 
lish it. The next great work that he accom- 
plished for the public schools of the State was secur- 
ing the passage of an act authorizing communities 
to vote a special tax to extend the school term. The 
third service he rendered the State was in behalf of 
better supervision of public schools. At first he pro- 
posed that two or three counties elect a first-class man 
who should give his whole time to the schools of these 

175 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



counties. The success of this movement was far be- 
yond his expectation, for very many, perhaps a major- 
ity of the counties, have a superintendent giving his 
whole time to the schools of his county. This review 
takes no account of the great work that he did 
in institute work, especially that part of the institute 
work that related to educational rallies, in which he 
made addresses to the public to arouse educational 
sentiment. I am not attempting to give his life in 
detail. He was thoroughly devoted to his calling. 
Large salaries offered to turn him aside from his work 
had no temptation for him. He could say in his 
heart with the great Prof. Agassiz: 'I have no time 
for making money. ' 

' ' Mclver lived a devoted life and passed away in its 
prime. He had accomplished the work that God gave 
him to do on earth, and I do not doubt that the same 
talents and zeal so conspicuous here are in use today 
in some other sphere of the universe. ' ' 

PEACE INSTITUTE 
Raleigh News and Observer 

There was celebrated yesterday, at Peace Institute, 
Mclver Memorial Exercises in which there was an 
excellent program of music and recitations by stu- 
dents of the College and an address concerning the 
late Dr. Charles D. Mclver, by Mr. Josephus Daniels, 
editor of the News and Observer. Most appropriate 
it was that the first school memorial exercises of Dr. 

176 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Mclver were held at Peace, as he was a professor there 
in his early career as an educator. 

In referring to Dr. Mclver 's work Mr. Daniels 
made prominent that which went to make woman 
see her duty as a citizen, this being one of the life- 
teachings of Dr. Mclver, who lent all his energies to 
the best education of the women of North Carolina. 

DUPLIN COUNTY NORMAL COLLEGE ALUMNiE 

- » 

Duplin Journal 

Seldom has it been the privilege of Warsaw to 
entertain a more attractive body of young women than 
gathered there on Monday, December 3rd, to honor 
with their presence and tributes the memorial service 
of their friend and leader, Dr. Charles D. Mclver. 

The meeting was held at the Carlton Hotel. In addi- 
tion to the alumnae and former students many ladies 
of the town were present. 

Miss Margaret Peirce, one of the most loyal daugh- 
ters of the Normal College, presided. 

The program was as follows : 

''Character Sketch of Dr. Mclver," by Miss Mary 
Faison DeVane. 

Miss Kate Bar den, of Kenans ville, then spoke on 
"Duplin County's Debt to Dr. Mclver and How 
Best to Repay It." 

A poem by Miss Helen Hicks brought out the 
thought that Dr. Mclver 's life was most happy, for 
he had lived gloriously. 



177 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Miss Elizabeth Hicks then spoke of Dr. Mclver 's 
classroom influence and of his ability to inspire self- 
improvement in others. 

Miss Maria Loftin, as a representative of the first 
year's students, spoke of "Conditions at the Normal 
College in 1892". She described the wonderful devel- 
opment of the Institution under the wise guidance of 
Dr. Mclver. 

UNIVERSITY ALUMNI, WAKE COUNTY ASSOCIATION 

Raleigh News and Observer 

The third annual banquet of the University Alumni 
was held from eight until half after ten o'clock last 
evening (Oct. 14, 1906), and was thoroughly enjoyed 
by some forty of the more than one hundred Wake 
County alumni. 

A letter was read from Dr. G. T. Winston, former 
president of the University, who was called away 
from town, in which he proposed the following toast : 

' ' To the memory of Charles Duncan Mclver, a pro- 
duct of the new University, a worker whose public 
services to North Carolina have repaid all the money 
invested by the State in his alma mater." 

To this toast County Superintendent Judd was 
called to respond, and spoke eloquently of the life 
and work of Dr. Charles D. Mclver and of his service 
to popular education. 



178 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



UNIVEESITY ALUMNI, GUILFORD COUNTY ASSOCIA- 
TION McIVER LOAN FUND 

Greensboro Patriot 

University Day was elaborately celebrated in this 
city (Greensboro) by the University Alumni Associa- 
tion of Guilford County. * * * * 

Dr. J. E. Brooks announced that the association had 
decided to depart from its usual custom of giving a 
scholarship to some deserving young man and instead 
to establish a ' ' Mclver Loan Fund, ' ' for general use 
in helping needy boys entering the University, regard- 
less of what part of the State they were from. A 
substantial sum was subscribed. * * * * 

SALISBURY GRADED SCHOOL 
Special to Daily Industrial News 

The teachers of the graded school yesterday morn- 
ing sent a telegram of condolence to the family of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, a man under whom a majority 
of them took tutelage and by whom he was univer- 
sally loved. Salisbury has a greater percentage of 
Normal College graduates teaching in the schools here 
than any town in the State. 

The teachers of the school met and decided to 
establish a scholarship in his honor, which they will 
call the Rowan Teachers ' Scholarship, supported solely 
by the teachers from this county who were State 
Normal College students. 



179 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



TEANSYLVANIA COUNTY TEACHEES 

From Sylvan Valley News 

An entertainment will be held in the court house 
Friday evening, January 18th, in memory of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, the deceased president of the 
State Normal and Industrial College at Greensboro. 
All the citizens of the county, far and near, are urged 
to be present and do homage to the memory of one 
of North Carolina's greatest sons, the grand and 
noble educator who said, "No State which will once 
educate its mothers need have any fear about 
illiteracy. ' ' 

The proceeds of the entertainment are to assist in 
the establishment of a Mclver Loan Fund which the 
students of the State Normal College are attempting 
to raise. This Loan Fund is for the benefit of worthy 
young women who are financially unable to secure 
an education without some assistance. To extend a 
helping hand to helpless women and children was one 
of the strongest impulses of this great benefactor's 
life, and we consider that no more fitting monument 
than this Loan Fund could be erected to his memory. 
Let all come out to learn of him and aid in establish- 
ing this monument. 



GEAHAM GEADED SCHOOL 
Alamance Gleaner 

Yesterday at 11 :00 o 'clock while the funeral of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver was being conducted in Greens- 

180 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



boro the entire graded school here assembled in the 
chapel and held a beautiful and impressive memorial 
service. In the beginning of the service Prof. Robert- 
son told briefly of Dr. Mclver 's life as an educator and 
of how closely he had been associated with our 
own school; how he had been instrumental in its 
establishment ; and that our first and former superin- 
tendent was his own brother, and that four of our 
teachers were his students; and hence how eminently 
fitting it was for the school to come together in memo- 
rial service. 

WAKE COUNTY TEACHEKS' ASSOCIATION 

Raleigh News and Observer 

A memorial service in honor of the late Dr. Charles 
D. Mclver was held here tonight, Nov. 30th, by the 
Wake County Teachers' Association, the principal 
features being an address on ''Charles D. Mclver as 
a Citizen of North Carolina," by Josephus Daniels, 
editor of the News and Observer, and an address, 
"Appreciation for Dr. Mclver," by J. Y. Joyner, 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

The influence of Dr. Mclver on the education of 
women was discussed by three young women, Miss 
Mary Arrington, from the viewpoint of a college stu- 
dent, Miss Ada V. Womble, as a teacher, and Miss 
Edith Royster from the viewpoint of "a citizen- 
woman. ' ' 



181 



RESOLUTIONS 



BOAED OF DIRECTORS OF THE STATE NORMAL 

COLLEGE 

Resolved, by the Board of Directors of the North 
Carolina State Normal and Industrial College: 

First: That we deeply deplore the death of Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, President of this Institution. He 
was the originator of the idea of the State Normal 
and Industrial College; the founder of the Institu- 
tion; its faithful friend in adversity and prosperity; 
and in his death the Institution has suffered an 
irreparable loss, the State and the nation one of their 
foremost educators, and popular education a vigorous 
defender and advocate. 

Second : Dr. Mclver had mental capacity to devise, 
heart and enthusiasm to inspire, energy to execute. 
He had but one purpose, one desire, one ambition in 
life, — to serve and elevate mankind. 

Third : He was a man of broad and patriotic senti- 
ments and sympathies. He loved his State with a deep 
devotion, and believed that all the interests of the 
State could be best served and advanced and popular 
education could be best fostered by training and 
elevating for service in the home, the church, and the 
schools, the young womanhood of the State. For 
this idea and to advance this purpose he gave his 
efforts, his energies and his life. 

182 



CHARLES DUNCAN MclVER 



Fourth : The State Normal and Industrial College, 
with its magnificent buildings and equipment, is a 
visible monument to his memory; but in the hearts 
of the people of North Carolina there is a monument 
to his life and service more lasting than stone, bronze 
or marble. 

Fifth : Resolved, That the chairman of this Board 
appoint a committee of three to act with the Dean 
of the Faculty in arranging for a public memorial ser- 
vice to be held at the College on Thursday, October 
11th, 1906, and to present at that time a suitable 
memorial commemorative of the life and service of 
the distinguished dead. 

Sixth: Resolved, That the Board officially and 
personally join with the widow and family of the 
deceased in mourning the loss that we have in common 
sustained, and that we tender to them assurance of 
our deepest and tenderest sympathy. 

B. F. Aycock, Wayne County. 
T. B. Bailey, Davie County. 

A. J. Conner, Northampton County. 

S. M. Gattis, Orange County. 

R. T. Gray, Wake County. 

J. Y. Joyner, Guilford County. 

C. H. Mebane, Catawba County. 
J. D. Murphy, Buncombe County. 
J. L. Nelson, Caldwell County. 

J. F. Post, Jr., New Hanover County. 
T. S. McMullan, Perquimans County. 



183 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



FACULTY OF THE STATE NOEMAL COLLEGE 

We, the Faculty of the State Normal and Industrial 
College, wish to record our grateful appreciation of 
the remarkably successful and singularly useful life 
of our honored President, helpful co-worker, and 
esteemed friend, Charles Duncan Mclver. 

While our hearts are deeply saddened by the loss 
of his genial presence, his magnetic personality, and 
his friendly sympathy, we feel that his spirit is still 
with us. The sunshine of his abiding optimism, and 
the radiance of his cheerful hopefulness, will continue 
to brighten for us the path of duty. 

Dr. Mclver 's was a soul too generous to entertain 
jealousy, too noble for pride. Neither wealth nor 
public honors could tempt him from his unselfish 
devotion to what he regarded as the State's greatest 
need. His was the truly great character that stands 
the crucial test of service to humanity. 

For him no undertaking was too difficult if its 
accomplishment meant a larger life for his people; 
no burden too heavy for him to bear if thereby it 
was made lighter for the shoulders of another. His 
example can but inspire us with courage to continue 
the work which he had so wisely planned and so suc- 
cessfully begun at this College. 

We count it a privilege to have been guided by his 
masterly hand, inspired by his magnanimous spirit, 
and aided by his sympathetic co-operation. We, who 
remember his sweet spirit of charity, delight in bear- 
ing testimony to the fact that his life was a beautiful 

184 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



demonstration of that sublime truth which he so often 

read in our presence: "Now abideth faith, hope, 

and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is 

charity. ' ' 

Viola Boddie, 

Gertrude W. Mendenhall, 

S. M. KlRKLAND, 

Melville V. Fort, 
E. J. Forney. 

ADELPHIAN LITEEAKY SOCIETY OF STATE NOEMAL 

COLLEGE 

We feel that in the death of our President, Dr. 
Charles D. Mclver, the Adelphian Literary Society 
has lost its most valuable guide and counsellor. To 
many of us he was not only our College President, 
but a close personal friend, and those of us who have 
been here with him esteem it a privilege to have 
had our lives touch his, to have been quickened by his 
live spirit, to have had put into us some of his 
enthusiasm and hope for the future, and to have 
known something of his clear insight and foresight, 
and ability to plan large things for us and for the 
College which he loved more than life. 

His plans were not laid for time as we measure it, 
but the endless years stretched out before his vision, 
and he showed his wisdom when he invested his time 
and strength in this great work to which he gave 
his life. 



185 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEK 



Let us hope that his purpose may be recognized 
and fulfilled by all who enter this College, and that 
we may all be inspired and controlled by "the power 
of an endless life." 

"He was made not after the law of a carnal com- 
mandment, but after the power of an endless life. ' 

These to our President, since we hold him dear, 

Through all these years we have learned to love him well. 

And now that he is gone we love him more; 
And so it must be ever to the end. 

The problems great and small alike were his, 
And in the solving he but grew more strong, 

Whose breadth of vision seemed to come with age, 
And strength of purpose with the added years. 

For life like this and service such as his, 
Our thanks we render to the God who gave, 

And pray while time is given us here to serve, 
We too may follow where he saw the light. 

Miss Mendenhall, 
Flora Thornton, 
Mary Exum, 

Committee. 

CORNELIAN LITERARY SOCIETY OF STATE 
NORMAL COLLEGE 

The Cornelian Literary Society wishes to bear testi- 
mony to the useful life and wonderfully helpful exam- 
ple of our beloved President, Charles Duncan Mclver. 
His habitual cheerfulness, his unfailing courage, his 

186 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



devotion to duty, and his boundless faith in humanity 
will ever be an inspiration to us. 

We gratefully attribute to him the opportunities 
now afforded the women of our State for obtaining a 
broad and practical education. It was through his 
efforts that the women of North Carolina were brought 
to a realization of their responsibilities as citizens; 
but he emphasized no less the importance of educating 
a woman for her home. Those who knew him well 
are familiar with his saying: "Educate a man and 
you educate an individual ; educate a woman and you 
educate a home. ' ' 

His trust in the students and his appeal to their 
honor and loyalty ever aroused a public sentiment 
that resulted in faithful work and right conduct. He 
constantly held before us the noblest ideal of democ- 
racy — an ideal which recognizes true worth and honest 
service regardless of class distinctions. 

To form a correct estimate of his worth, his life 
should be measured not by years but by deeds : 

"For the shortest life is longest, if 'tis best; 
'Tis ours to work, to God belongs the rest. 
Our lives are measured by the deeds we do, 
The thoughts we think, the objects we pursue. 
Though all too short his course and quickly run, 
'Twas full and glorious as the orbed sun." 



Mena Davis, 
Mabel Howell, 
Mary Mitchell, 

Committee. 



187 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



YOUNG WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF 
STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 

In the death of our beloved President, the Young 
Woman's Christian Association has lost a true and 
sympathetic friend. We feel keenly the lack of his 
ready aid in every good work, of his unselfish, Christ- 
like spirit. His life was an expression of Christian 
love and service, and the high ideals which he set 
before us will long live in the memory of a grateful 
people. We would not repine; we believe that the 
great All-Father is too good to be unkind, too wise 
to make a mistake. ' ' He was not, for God took him. ' ' 



Christina Snyder, 
Rena Lassiter, 
Vaughn White, 

Committee. 



SENIOR CLASS OF STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 

To each member of the Senior Class of the State Nor- 
mal and Industrial College the death of our President 
is a personal sorrow. For three years we were 
guided by his counsel and inspired by his high ideals 
till his influence upon us has crystallized into a 
steady purpose. 

If, as a class or as individuals we have gained 
in strength since our entrance here, we attribute it, 
in great measure, to his inspiration. Never too tired 
to help with advice ; never too pre-occupied to sympa- 
thize with each girl's aspirations, his approbation 

188 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



was a thing to be sought and his kindly criticism a 

thing to be appreciated. 

Since his life was one of service, its purpose may be 

expressed in the following prayer: "Grant, Lord, 

that I some service to mankind may render in my 

little space of years. Naught else I ask but that 

when life is done, some one may say : ' He was God 's 

tool.'" 

Mat Lovelace, 

Eleanore Elliott, 

Vaughn White, 

Committee. 

JUNIOE CLASS OF STATE NOEMAL COLLEGE 

As members of the Junior Class we wish to express 
our love and esteem for our late President, Dr. Charles 
Duncan Mclver. During the two years of our college 
life his noble example has been a constant inspiration. 
He has impressed upon us the necessity of having 
a high purpose in life, and has ever helped and 
cheered us by his encouraging words. We will go 
forth to our work stronger for having known him. 
The memory of his cheerful, hopeful spirit and 
untiring energy will go with us throughout our lives. 
We see him no more, but his works live after him. 

Rena G. Lassiter, 
Selma C. Webb, 
Martha Petty, 

Committee. 



189 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



SOPHOMORE CLASS OF STATE NORMAL COLLEGE 

We, the members of the Class of 1909, desire to 
express our love and esteem for the late President of 
our College, Dr. Mclver. Our class fully appreciates 
the privilege of knowing so noble a character. 
Although we knew him but a short time, we deeply 
deplore the loss of one who so unselfishly gave his 
life for the benefit of others. He was an inspiration 
to us in the beginning of our college life; his mem- 
ory encourages us to do our part of the great work 

that he loved. ._ x 

Florence Landis, 

Eunice Roberts, 

Maud Rogers, 

Committee. 

HENDERSON GRADED SCHOOLS AND CITIZENS 

Press Correspondence 

Henderson, N. C, Sept. 20. — At a meeting of citi- 
zens, graded school teachers and former pupils of the 
State Normal College the following resolutions were 
adopted : 

1 ' The entire State of North Carolina mourns today. 
She has lost her first citizen and her most useful one. 
From mountain to coastline there is sorrow at the 
passing of Charles Duncan Mclver, for his influence 
was felt and his benefaction extended throughout 
the length of the State. The teachers of the Henderson 
Graded Schools desire to express their feeling of obli- 
gation to Dr. Mclver and their deep sense of personal 

loss in his death. 

190 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



In him all good qualities seemed united — 
'To give the world assurance of a man.' 

* ' As an educator who was doing more for the youth 
of the commonwealth than any other, a public-spirited 
citizen deeply interested in all that touched his State, 
and a Christian gentleman of unquestioned loyalty 
to all truth and duty, his death means an irreparable 
loss to North Carolina. We do not know how we shall 
get along without him. 

"Another may assume his duties, but no man can 
take the place of Charles Duncan Mclver with a host 
of friends who loved and admired the man, or with the 
great throng of young men and women of North 
Carolina who have been stirred by his example and 
teaching to a deeper intellectual activity, and have 
learned at his feet the beauty and power of the 
life of service. 'Know ye not that a prince and a 
great man hath fallen in Israel today ? ' 



> ) 



FORMER STUDENTS OF HICKORY 

When the news of the death of Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver reached Hickory it caused great sorrow among 
the residents of this place who remembered him as 
having helped to organize the graded school here. 
But the sorrow was greatest in the hearts of those 
who have been students of the State Normal College, 
who knew him as a great educator and Christian 
man, who learned to love him as a personal friend. 
We wish to place on record our appreciation of this 
man who devoted his life to the upbuilding of the 

191 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



womanhood of the State. While others admire him 
as a public man, we wish to pay tribute to those 
traits of character that won the love of every girl 
who knew him not only as President of the College, 
but as a friend when a friend was most needed. In 
our pain over the loss of our friend we would not forget 
his loved ones who no longer see him in his place in 
the home. 

He has passed over the river to rest, but in our hearts 
he will always be loved and remembered. 

Roche Michaux, Mrs. E. B. Cline, 

Mamie Dixon, Katherine C. Baker, 

Rosa Lee Dixon, Lee Lentz, 

Louise Dixon, Carrie Powell, 

Kate Finley, Estelle Davis, 

Josie Doub, Marie Brooks. 

STATE PEIMAEY TEACHEES' ASSOCIATION 

* 

As ours is the first formal assembly of North Caro- 
lina teachers since the event of the death of our teacher 
leader, Dr. Charles D. Mclver, we desire to pay our 
tribute of love and respect to his memory, and to put 
ourselves on record as deeply appreciative of his ever- 
abiding interest in, and loyal support of, every move- 
ment that pertained to the uplift and forward prog- 
ress of education. He knew no primary, interme- 
diate, or secondary in his thought of education, but, 
viewing it from the hilltop, education in its fullest 
sense was, as it were, his "ruling passion." His 

192 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



life work was to further educational activity along 
all lines. Truly, he was an ' ' educational statesman, ' ' 
as Dr. Lyman Abbott so aptly styled him. 

His was to project great schemes, to dare great 
deeds ; and his the joy to perfect many of his schemes 
and to perform many of the great deeds which his 
big brain conceived. "By their fruits ye shall know 
them. ' ' 

We, as teachers, honor him first of all for that he 
was a true teacher. He knew and battled with the 
same difficulties that confront us every day. But 
more than that, we honor him for the great work of 
emancipation which he wrought for us, as teachers, 
in the realization of his dream of providing better 
opportunities for our training for more effective ser- 
vice. To his "genius of inspiration" is due in large 
measure the wonderful, quickening uplift and out- 
look along all lines of educational thought and awaken- 
ing in the "Old North State." 

We shall miss his genial spirit of buoyancy and 
optimism. But, as teachers, we might well pray the 
prayer of Elisha, "Let, I pray thee, a double portion 
of thy spirit be upon me." Truly we shall not "look 
upon his like again." 

"His life was gentle, and the elements 
So mixed in him that Nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, ' This was a man. ' " 



Nettie M. Allen, 

Iola V. Exum, 

Committee. 
193 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



DIALECTIC SOCIETY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH 

CAROLINA 

The Dialectic Society of the University of North 
Carolina adopted resolutions of respect to the late 
Dr. Charles D. Mclver as follows : 

"Whereas, God in his infinite wisdom has seen fit 
to call from earth Dr. Charles D. Mclver, who was a 
loyal and useful son of the University and a faithful 
member of the Dialectic Society, therefore, 

"Resolved, first, That in the death of Dr. Mclver 
the University has lost a most able alumnus whose 
untiring energy has wrought a lasting influence for 
the State, and that the Dialectic Literary Society has 
lost a member who was a warm-hearted friend and a 
man of wisdom and power. 

"Resolved, second, That we hereby extend the 
bereaved family our deepest sympathy, and that a 
copy of these resolutions be published in The Tar Heel 
and in the daily papers of Greensboro. ' ' 

T. D. Sharp, 
P. M. Williams, 
C. C. Barnheart, 

Committee. 



GREENSBORO CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

The Chamber of Commerce of the city of Greens- 
boro, at the first meeting of the executive committee 
since the great calamity of Dr. Charles D. Mclver 's 
death, which befell the State, the cause of education, 

194 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



the city of Greensboro, the various organizations with 
which he was connected, and his personal friends, 
desiring to give formal expression of the members of 
the Chamber of Commerce, of their sense of loss and 
bereavement in his death, adopt the following resolu- 
tions : 

First, that Dr. Charles D. Mclver was one of the 
foremost citizens of our city, and none surpassed him 
in loyalty to her interests, in persistent, enthusiastic, 
and intelligent service for her educational, religious 
and industrial progress. 

Second, that each member of the Chamber of Com- 
merce appreciated his willingness at all times to attend 
the meetings of members of the Chamber of Commerce 
and Board of Directors, and his ability in devising 
means whereby the usefulness of the Chamber of Com- 
merce could be increased, and his unselfish sacrifices in 
aiding in the execution of all means looking to this end. 

Third, that we should, as a tribute to his memory, 
with renewed energy, carry on the work that he was 
doing as a member of the Chamber of Commerce. 

Fourth, that a copy of these resolutions be spread 
upon the minutes of the Chamber of Commerce, and 
that a copy be sent to Mrs. Mclver. 

MASONIC LODGE, WINSTON 

At a regular communication of Winston Lodge No. 

167, A. F. and A. M., held Monday, October 8th, 1906, 

the following resolutions of respect were unanimously 

adopted : 

195 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



"Whereas, It has pleased the great Ruler of the uni- 
verse in His wisdom to take from our midst our 
esteemed and valued brother, Dr Charles D. Mdver, 
and to mercifully transfer him, as we reverently 
believe, to the Grand Lodge above, therefore, be it 
resolved, 

"That this, Winston Lodge of Ancient, Free and 
Accepted Masons, deeply deplores the sad loss of a most 
zealous, worthy, faithful and useful brother, devoted 
to the interests of humanity, the upbuilding of society 
and the development of the best and highest citizen- 
ship: 

"That the State of North Carolina has lost a 
great educational leader, a noble citizen, and a devoted 
patriot : 

"That our tenderest sympathy and warmest 
regard be extended to the honored wife and children 
of our departed brother, with the assurance that we 
shall ever take the deepest interest in their future 
welfare and in their success : 

"That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded 
to the family of the deceased, and that they be 
inscribed upon a page of our minutes dedicated to his 
memory. ' ' 

J. K. NORFLEET, 

Wm. A. Blair, 
Leon Cash, 

Committee. 



196 , 

r 
i 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE FOR 

THE COLORED RACE 

Be it resolved, by the teachers and students of the 
A & M. College for the Colored Race, that we take 
this opportunity of expressing our feelings of deep 
regret at the untimely death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver : 
First, because he was a champion of universal 
education and the foremost man in the State to teach 
and disseminate its principles. 

Second, we deplore his sudden departure because 
we believe he was a man of broad, patriotic and 
sympathetic impulse, and though it was but natural 
for him to be first interested in the educational uplift 
of his own people, yet we learn from those who 
were in close contact with him that he earnestly and 
unselfishly, in public and in private, by voice and 
pen, rendered valuable aid "m stemming the tide of 
opposition to the education of our race. 

For the service we are grateful, and at the same time 
we extend our sincere sympathy to those who were 
near and dear to him in life and now so deeply 
mourn him in death. 

Chas. H. Moore, 
J. H. Bluford, 
Chas. W. Pieece, 
J. C. Truman, 
J. H. Smith, 
B. W. Barnes, 
J. T. Merrick. 



197 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



ADOPTED BY THE CONFERENCE FOR EDUCATION 
IN THE SOUTH, PINEHURST, N. C. 

A native of the South, endowed with the virtues 
of a Scotch ancestry, schooled by the adversity that 
follows war, he early developed those traits of charac- 
ter which made him a leader of men. He loved his 
friends, and they in turn were devoted to him. His 
innate sense of justice, quickened by instinctive sym- 
pathy, impelled him to champion the cause of the 
oppressed and unfortunate. To him ignorance was 
slavery, and to the call of children for freedom through 
education he responded by unreservedly offering the 
full measure of his manhood. His first vote was cast 
for local tax for public schools, and his life long he 
adhered to the doctrine that liberal taxation, fairly 
levied and properly applied, is the chief mark of a 
civilized people. He knew well the power of personal 
influence and understood as few do the full signifi- 
cance of the office of teacher. Chivalrous in his 
respect for womanhood, convinced that ''No State 
which will once educate its mothers need have any 
fear about future illiteracy," his first great public 
service was the creation of a college for the training 
of teachers and the higher education of women, an 
enduring monument, erected at public expense and 
consecrated by his devotion to the public service of 
his native State. So efficient was his work in North 
Carolina that other States eagerly sought his assist- 
ance. And every appeal for help, whether from his 



198 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



own beloved South, or from the North or from the 
West, was answered to the limit of his strength. He 
had the genius of friendliness that made him at home 
with those of every class and in every section. Wher- 
ever he went his enthusiasm was contagious, and the 
good he did no man can estimate. What his leader- 
ship has meant to this Conference we are beginning 
to know and appreciate. He brought to us the sun- 
shine of his hope; he stimulated us with abundant 
good cheer ; he guided us with infinite common sense ; 
he inspired us with patriotic fervor; he enlisted us 
permanently in the cause to which he gave his life; 
and he made of every one of us a friend who loved 
him — and we love him still. 

This tribute we pay to his memory, and in bringing 
it we acknowledge publicly the debt we owe to a life 
that has been to us all a blessed benediction. 

COMMITTEE ON PASTOEATE OF THE FIRST PRESBY- 
TERIAN CHURCH, GREENSBORO 

Charles Duncan Mclver on the 17th day of Septem- 
ber, 1906, received his last summons and entered into 
his eternal rest. His call came to him without notice, 
with no warning, and we must believe that when the 
swift hand of death was laid upon him he shrank 
not from the touch, but met it with the courage of a 
fearless man, for he was brave. He had lived a brave, 
fearless life. All his life long he had been meeting 
duty and difficulty with the courage of a true man, 

199 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



and hence we know that death had no terrors for him. 

He brought to the discharge of the difficult and 
delicate duty that has been imposed upon the- Pastorate 
Committee of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Greensboro, N. C, the same earnestness and enthusi- 
asm and optimism and discrimination which he 
brought to all the larger tasks which he ever under- 
took. His service as a member of this committee 
showed that there was no interest nearer and dearer 
to him than his church, and that he regarded the 
church with the same broad sweep of vision as those 
other prominent factors of the life of the world as he 
saw it which stood out within the range of his heroism. 
He looked for a preacher who would be the leader 
in the life and thought and work of the community, 
and he cherished the same broad and high ideal for 
his church. He had dedicated his life to the great 
cause of education; he was foremost in every move- 
ment for the advancement of the best interests of 
the community ; but underlying all his great hopes for 
the world and mankind was his fundamental faith 
in the church of the Living God as the basis of all 
thought and life and progress in the world. This 
we believe was his large view of the church which he 
loved so well and tried to serve faithfully. 

We, the members of the Pastorate Committee, will 
miss his genial converse, his hopefulness, his help- 
fulness, his friendship. His place among us cannot 
be supplied. There is not another like him. As we 
pursue the unfinished work that is before us, we will 

200 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



endeavor to carry it out in that hopeful spirit and 
in that large view of it which our dead friend and 
co-worker gave to it. 

It is our wish that this memorial of appreciation 
and affection be spread upon the record of the minutes 
of this committee and that a copy be transmitted to 
Mrs. Mclver in testimony of our cordial sympathy. 

G. W. Denny, A. M. Scales, 

J. M. Hendrix, Z. V. Taylor, 

J. W. Fry, A. W. McAlister. 
W. E. Allen, 

GUILFORD CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE 

CONFEDERACY 

Whereas, In the providence of God we have been 
called to mourn the sudden death of the honored 
President of the State Normal and Industrial College, 
Dr. Charles D. Mclver, we would place on record 
our appreciation of his labors for education and for 
the uplifting of the women of North Carolina. Those 
who knew him best loved him most. A man of strong 
convictions and tender impulses, he did not hesitate 
to jeopardize his own interests for what he felt was 
right and ought to be said and done. To have 
known him was to receive an inspiration to a nobler 
life. Faithful in every duty, his memory will remain 
a precious heritage. 

While we are bowed with grief over his sudden 
passing away, in all the strength of his manhood, 

201 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



we sorrow not as those who have no hope. He has 
heard the call, "Well done, good and faithful ser- 
vant, enter thou into the joy of the Lord." To the 
bereaved family we extend our sincere sympathy. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be incorporated 
in our minutes, a copy be sent the family and pub- 
lished in our daily papers. 

Miss Meta E. Beall, Mrs. A. J. Fariss, 

Mrs. J. N. Staples, Mrs. J. G. Brodnax, Sr., 

Mrs. E. F. Dalton, Miss C. J. Gorrell. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF NORTH CAROLINA 
LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

The Executive Committee of the North Carolina 
Library Association held a meeting in the Greensboro 
Public Library November 19th. It was their desire, 
in memory of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, late vice-presi- 
dent of the Association, to express their appreciation 
of his enthusiastic support of their work and his 
recognition of its educational value in the upbuilding 
of the State. His service, as vice-president, was of 
great value to the Association, and in recognition 
thereof the Executive Committee has spread upon its 
minutes an expression of their appreciation of his 
hearty co-operation in all their efforts. 

J. Frank Wilkes, Secretary. 



202 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



GREENSBORO PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Whereas, The late Dr. Charles D. Mclver was one 
of the chief factors in the establishment of the Free 
Circulating Library of Greensboro and gave it his 
warmest sympathy and strongest support through 
all its eventful past, therefore, 

Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Mclver the 
Library has sustained an irreparable loss and the 
members of the Board are bereft of a personal friend 
and a wise and faithful counsellor; 

Resolved, That we hereby extend to the bereaved 
family our deepest sympathy, and that a copy of these 
resolutions be sent to Mrs. Mclver and to the daily 
papers of the city. 

L. W. Crawford, Chairman, 
G. A. Grimsley. 

DAUGHTERS OF AMERICAN REVOLUTION, WAYNES- 

VILLE CHAPTER 

Having heard with deepest sorrow of the death 
of Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the State 
Normal and Industrial College, we, the members of 
the Dorcas Bell Love Chapter, Daughters of the 
American Revolution, desiring to attest the admira- 
tion and loving esteem in which we hold his memory, 
offer the following tribute of respect: 

We feel that in the death of Dr. Mclver education, 
which is one of the chief aims of our society, has 
suffered an irreparable loss, our State has lost one 

203 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



of her most distinguished sons, and our Chapter a 
friend. With all the women of the State, we shall 
cherish his memory as one who has done more for 
our advancement and enlightenment than any other, 
and although we mourn his sudden call into the Great 
Beyond, his name will live and his unselfish and 
beautiful -character will prove an inspiration to 
generations yet unborn. 

We extend our deep and heartfelt sympathy to the 
bereaved family, realizing keenly their great loss, and 
we commend them to our Heavenly Father who is 
too wise to err and too merciful to be unkind. 

Ruth Bennetts Baker, 

Mary Love Stringfield Wulborn, 

Annie Gudger Quinlan. 

BUNCOMBE COUNTY ALUMNAE ASSOCIATION 

The mortal life of our beloved President, Dr. Charles 
Duncan Mclver, is ended. We, the Buncombe County 
daughters of the State Normal and Industrial College, 
wish to express to the bereaved family, the faculty, 
and the student body our deepest sympathy. In 
his death we each have lost a personal friend and 
benefactor, but his enthusiasm and high ideals of life 
will ever remain a fragrant memory and inspiration 
to us. 

Therefore, be it resolved : 

That we bow in submission to the will of Him 
who doeth all things well ; 

204 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



That in the death of Dr. Mclver the South 
has lost one of her noblest and most useful men and 
the womanhood of North Carolina her Chief in the 
cause of education ; 

That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
family, the faculty, and that a copy be spread upon 
the minutes of our Buncombe County Association 
of Normal Students. 

Birdie Bell Reynolds, 
Sarah Frances Suttle, 
Elizabeth Frances Bernard, 
Anna Folsom Fisher. 

THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF GOLDSBOEO 

Whereas, The work of the late Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver, President of the State Normal and Industrial 
College, was for the purpose of affording greater 
opportunities for the education of the women of 
North Carolina; and, recognizing the great service he 
has rendered the women of the State by his untiring 
efforts in educating the citizenship of North Carolina 
to the belief that the elevation of womanhood means 
the elevation of the race; and, 

Whereas, It was his life work to establish an insti- 
tution which young women of small means might 
attend and from which they might derive equal ben- 
efit with those of larger means ; and, 

Whereas, The citizens of North Carolina have 
expressed a very fitting desire to erect a bronze 

205 



CEABLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



statue to his memory — a tribute that should receive 
all encouragement possible from every citizen of 
North Carolina; and, 

Whereas, The womanhood of North Carolina, for 
whom he labored so unceasingly, desire to carry out 
his purpose to offer better opportunity of education 
to those in moderate circumstances ; 

Be it resolved, That the women of North Carolina 
recommend, as their special tribute to his memory, 
the establishment of a loan fund of sufficient amount 
to be of service to a large number of deserving young 
women who would be unable to attend this institu- 
tion without the aid of such a fund. 

JUNIOR ORDEE GREENSBORO COUNCIL 

Another one of our brothers, Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver, having filled out the measure of his days, 
has suddenly fallen and been taken in the wisdom of 
our Father in heaven to that better country, of which 
we know by revelation and faith. 

We desire to place on record and give our expres- 
sion to the feelings that fill our minds and hearts; 
therefore, be it resolved : 

That in the death of Brother C. D. Mclver, Greens- 
boro and the State loses one of its most useful citizens ; 
that to Greensboro Council No. 13, Jr. O. U. A. M., 
especially does his sudden and unexpected death come 
as a great and painful loss; alert and active in the 



206 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



educational cause, guarding well and faithfully every 
principle of the order, showing himself as cast in that 
heroic mould which enabled him to obey that injunc- 
tion of the great apostle, Look not every man on his 
own things, but every man also on the things of others ; 

That, as an educator, brother, husband and 
father, he was faithful and true; that in the good 
name he achieved and builded he has bequeathed to 
his family and country and friends a legacy more 
precious than gold, and erected a monument more 
lasting than brass ; 

That we tender to his family our deepest sym- 
pathy, and assure them that we weep with them, 
share their woe, and would place our shoulder under 
their great burden; 

That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded 
to the family, and that they be spread on the minutes. 

W. F. Clarida, 
A. A. Chandler, 
J. F. Aiken. 

WILSON COUNTY ALUMNA 

"Whereas, Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver has been an 
invaluable friend to the young women of North Caro- 
lina and ever exerted his splendid influence in their 
behalf ; 

Whereas, He has been the founder and soul of the 
State Normal and Industrial College of North Caro- 



207 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 






Una, and through this Institution has uplifted woman- 
kind in North Carolina ; resolved : 

First, That the former students of the State 
Normal and Industrial College from Wilson County- 
desire to express their deep love for Dr. Mclver and 
their undying appreciation of the ever kindly and 
fatherly interest he evinced toward them ; 

Second, That each former student from Wilson 
County feels a keen sense of loss in his death ; 

Third, That we desire to express our sincere sym- 
pathy for his family in their loss; 

Fourth, That a copy of these resolutions be sent 
to Mrs. Mclver; also a copy to the State Normal 
Magazine and the Wilson Times for publication. 

Daphne K. Carraway, 
Catherine E. Pace, 
Rosa E. Wells, 
Bertha R. Sugg, 

Committee. 

MAXTON GRADED SCHOOLS 

Whereas, It has pleased an allwise God to release 
from his earthly toils Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, 
who labored so faithfully in the educational work of 
his State, the School Board of Maxton, in their regular 
meeting, desire to place on record their appreciation 
of his great service to humanity, in general, and to 
this Board, in particular, in that he helped to organ- 
ize the work of this school. 

208 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Therefore, be it resolved : 

That we commend to the young men of his 
day and generation the life of this peerless educa- 
tional statesman who accomplished so much by his 
untiring effort and indomitable will in so short a 
life; 

That we heartily endorse any movement that may 
be set on foot to preserve his memory ; 

That a copy of these resolutions be sent to 
the bereaved family of the deceased; that a copy be 
spread on the permanent records of this Board; that 
a copy be sent to the Board of the noble Institution 
that he founded; that a copy be sent to the Scottish 
Chief and to the State press. 

R. M. Williams, Chairman, 
J. B. Weatherly, Secretary. 

MANNDALE INSTITUTE 

Resolved, by the pupils of Manndale Institute: 
That we hereby desire to give expression to the real 
loss we feel in the death of Dr. Charles D. Mclver. 
We regard him as the foremost educator of our State. 
His broad culture, his love of his native State, his 
never-tiring energy and his genuine warm heart, were 
all used effectively in giving inspiration to public 
school work, the higher education of women and a 
general impetus to the uplift of mankind in our 
State and Nation. 

We shall miss him in his matchless personality, but 

209 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



his work will still live in the hearts and lives of 
thousands of North Carolinians who have felt the 
touch of his magnetic inspiration. 

John S. Thomas, Belva Cheek, 
E. D. Walters, Fannie Dark, 

G. E. Moore, Sadie Harward. 

Mcdowell county board of education 

We realize that, in his life, Dr. Charles D. Mclver 
demonstrated the value of his personal worth in 
the administration of the greatest earthly affair. He 
had become the State's idol and one of the Nation's 
greatest men. North Carolina loved him as one of 
her noblest sons; the South watched with pride the 
great work he was doing, and the Nation beckoned 
him on to yet greater things. 

The most marked instance of his power and genuine 
character, are in the immeasurably great results of 
his life work. He it was who started the great 
educational awakening in North Carolina that is felt 
throughout the State today. He it was who, in Febru- 
ary, 1902, was instrumental in calling together a num- 
ber of the State's leading men and formally issued 
a declaration against illiteracy and began the cam- 
paign which has resulted in placing North Carolina 
well in the front of Southern educational progress. 
Truly a great man has gone from us, but he left us 
a choice legacy in his Christian example, in his incor- 
ruptible integrity, in his public deeds, and in his 

private life. 

210 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



May the memory of him we mourn be an inspira- 
tion to us and to others to press forward under new 
leaders to new achievements and to a higher develop- 
ment of the great work which he has begun. 

Resolved, That a copy of this tribute be sent to 
the stricken wife and family and to the State and 
County papers for publication. 

D. E. Hudgins, 
J. L. Padgett, 
W. E. Brown, 
D. F. Giles. 

TEYON SCHOOL 
Press Correspondence 

When the sad news of the death of Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver, President of the State Normal and Industrial 
College, reached the school, Superintendent Branon 
called the students and teachers together, and after 
reading an account of the sudden death of Dr. Mclver 
and explaining his place in the educational progress of 
North Carolina and the South, the following resolu- 
tions were adopted: 

Whereas, We as a school body, feel that in the death 
of the late Dr. Charles D. Mclver, President of the 
State Normal and Industrial College, we have lost 
one of the strongest factors in the educational prog- 
ress of the South ; and, 

Whereas, He was a friend to the several institu- 
tions of learning throughout the State, and especially 
the public schools ; and, 

211 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Whereas, He loved with a special interest the 
boys and girls in the many schools ; 

Therefore, be it resolved, That we, the students 
and teachers of Tryon Graded School, deeply mourn 
our great loss, and that of the State Normal and 
Industrial College, and the entire South. 

NORTH CAROLINA CHILDREN'S HOME SOCIETY 

At a special meeting of the Board of Directors of 
the North Carolina Children's Home Society the 
following resolutions were unanimously adopted: 

Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty Father to 
call to Himself Dr. Charles Duncan Mclver, an 
honored citizen, a Christian gentleman, and a much 
beloved member of the Board of Directors of the 
North Carolina Children's Home Society, be it 

Resolved by said Board of Directors in special ses- 
sion assembled : 

First, That in the death of Dr. Mclver the cause 
of needy childhood has suffered a distinct loss. His 
charity was broad and extended to all worthy objects, 
but his interest in the work of the Children's Home 
Society was intense, the cause of homeless little ones 
appealing to him especially; and be it 

Resolved, second, That we shall sorely miss his 
enthusiasm, his wise counsel, and his cheery presence 
in our meetings ; and be it 

Resolved, third, That our sympathy goes out to 
the bereaved family, their loss being as a personal 
one to each of us, also ; and be it 

212 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Resolved, fourth, That these resolutions be made 
a part of the permanent record of the Society; that 
a copy of the same be forwarded to the family, and 
that they be furnished the public press. 

By order of the Board of Directors. 

W. H. Osborn, President, 
Wm. B. Streeter, Secretary. 



213 




PERSONAL TRIBUTES 



J. D. MURPHY, MEMBER OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS 

Address Delivered at the Opening of the College, September 20, 1906 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Faculty and Students of the 

State Normal and Industrial College : 

At this moment and in this presence every heart 
is touched and saddened because we sit in the shadow 
of a great grief and in the gloom of human sorrow. 

Only a few hours since, the founder and father 
of this great Institution stood among us, strong in 
the strength of a vigorous manhood, bouyant and hope- 
ful in the prospect of a long life of usefulness and 
helpfulness. Today all that is mortal of your late 
honored President lies in the bosom of Mother Earth 
— dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Truly man's life is 
a shadow and human existence mysterious to finite 
minds. 

At the request of the Board of Directors of this 
Institution, I am here today to extend to the faculty 
and student body the sympathy of the Board, officially 
and personally, and to express to you our tenderest 
sympathy for you in your sorrow and our high appre- 
ciation of the worth and work of President Mclver. 

For me this is a labor of love because I loved him 
much. Classmates at the University of this State, we 

214 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



formed there a friendship which time has only served 
to cement, and onr subsequent association to 
strengthen. Would that I had the gift of a Bossuet 
to express to you in tender and eloquent eulogium 
the sentiments which I today feel in my heart. 

At an epochal moment in the history of the English 
people, when there was taking place in the English 
Parliament the great debate in which Edmund Burke 
participated, involving the treatment and policy of 
the English nation toward the American Colonies, 
Mr. Burke arose from his seat and humbly and 
reverently said, before entering upon that great debate, 
1 ' Sursum corda — Let us lift up our hearts to Almighty 
God and ask for guidance and wisdom. ' ' 

When the Constitutional Convention met at Phila- 
delphia to carve the greatest piece of constitutional 
statuary ever chiseled by the pen of man — the Consti- 
tution of the United States — Benjamin Franklin 
arose and told his comrades that in entering upon such 
momentous and important duties they should seek 
divine guidance and wisdom, saying in sub- 
stance : ' ' Let us go down on our knees before God, 
who giveth wisdom to all men liberally and upbraideth 
not. ' ' 

In this epochal moment in the history of this Insti- 
tution and of this State, let us be guided and governed 
by the spirit of Burke and Franklin, inspired with 
Christian hope and Christian faith, and, on our knees, 
lift up our hearts and ask for divine guidance. 



215 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



In, perhaps, the greatest city on this earth there 
is a great church — St. Paul's — first the dream and 
then the realization of Sir Christopher Wrenn, the 
great architect and builder of that beautiful temple. 
On its walls there is a Latin inscription: "Si vis 
monumentum, circum spice" — "If you wish a monu- 
ment, look around." If you wish to see a monument 
of Charles D. Mclver, look around on these magnifi- 
cent buildings and these beautiful grounds. But he 
has reared another monument — an invisible and 
intangible monument, more lasting than pyramids and 
more perennial than bronze statues — a monument 
in the hearts and lives and souls of the people of a 
great State. 

This visible monument shall live and shall grow to 
perpetuate his name and fame because its founda- 
tions are built upon the hearts of the womanhood of 
North Carolina. 

Today, there is a word of sorrow on every lip and 
a tear of grief in every eye. But in the presence of 
this dispensation shall we be discouraged? The great 
throbbing heart of North Carolina answers "no." 
Upon the foundation which he builded so wisely and 
so well, we will continue to work and labor until the 
dreams and visions of that great soul become actuali- 
ties in this great educational force of which he was 
the founder. 

On the tomb of John and Charles Wesley there is 
an inscription: "God buries His workers, but con- 
tinues His work." The work of the great lawgiver, 

216 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Moses, was continued by his successor, Joshua. The 
mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha. 

While we know that it will be difficult to find one 
upon whom to cast the mantle of your late President, 
I have a supreme and abiding faith that Jehovah will 
point out the man, because I feel that the very hand 
of God is in this great work, and that upon this Insti- 
tution, with its noble ideals and lofty purposes and 
Christian influences, He will vouchsafe His benign 
benediction. 

We deeply deplore the fact that Dr. Mclver was 
taken in the very prime of life, in his forty-sixth year. 
But "Man that spake as never man spake" — I speak 
reverently — accomplished His mission in thirty- three 
years. Was there ever such grief — was there ever such 
apparent failure of a great purpose in life, as there 
was to all outward appearances on Calvary's Hill 
near Jerusalem, when all nature shuddered and 
shrouded herself in darkness at the sight of an expir- 
ing God? Today millions of men and women bow 
down in reverence and love before the cross which 
stood on that day for failure and despondency. 

May I say right in this connection, young ladies, 
that the thing which most distinguishes the Christian 
nations and peoples from the other peoples of the 
earth is their love and reverence for woman? Your 
distinguished President devoted his energies, his 
efforts, his life to this Christian ideal, and the heart 
of every woman in North Carolina is today touched 
with grief because, in yonder grave, lies their greatest 

217 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



defender, their life-long advocate, their helper and 
friend. ' ' Greater love hath no man than this, that he 
lay down his life for his friend." Truly, young 
ladies, Charles D. Mclver has, indeed and in truth, 
laid down his life for you and for your children and 
for your children's children. At all times, under all 
circumstances, in the State or out of the State, his 
chief est and uppermost thought was, — What can I do 
for popular education ? What can I do for the woman- 
hood of North Carolina? 

Let us be sorrowful, but let us be hopeful. The 
holy influences in the hearts of the three thousand 
young women who have gone out from this Institution 
are seeds planted in fruitful gardens, which will 
hereafter produce roses of hope, lilies of love and 
flowers of patriotism. The hearts of three thousand 
young women are bound to this Institution by golden 
cords, and the hearts of nearly two millions of people 
today, faculty and students, extend to you sympathy 
in your work and bid you Godspeed in your efforts 
to continue the work of this great Institution. 

As Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses in 
the presence of the Amalekites, so the Board asks you, 
young ladies, to hold up the hands of your faculty 
by an earnest devotion to duty, by hopeful helpfulness 
and by indefatigable effort, to build here a great 
institution of learning, a great fountain from which 
will flow streams of living water to bless and brighten 
the pathway of the people of our State. 



218 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



And in all your efforts may the richest joys of earth 
and the choicest blessings of Heaven come to yon, 
collectively and individually. 

JOSEPHUS DANIELS 

In Mclver Memorial Edition of the News and Observer 

The people of North Carolina will preserve in a 
bronze statue the form and lineaments of Charles 
Duncan Mclver, and his figure will stand for all time 
as the best type of the North Carolina educational 
statesman and will serve to incite ambitious youth to 
unselfish public service. The State Normal and Indus- 
trial College, born in his brain years before legisla- 
tive action gave him permission to build, will be 
enlarged from year to year and live forever as the 
chief institution for the education of women in the 
South. * * It was born of the faith and 

enthusiasm of Dr. Mclver and his noble wife, who saw 
its present glory as clearly in their dreams twenty 
years ago as the public now sees its imposing build- 
ings and its large equipment and beautiful campus, 
and feels its influence in every school district in the 
Commonwealth. * * The State, through his 
efforts and enthusiasm, voted a small sum to establish 
the Institution after having, when first presented, 
refused to vote the necessary small appropriation. 
His faith was so contagious and Greensboro was so 
dominated by it that its people voted a bond issue to 
secure the location. The State and Greensboro there- 
fore gave to Charles Mclver the clay — because his 

219 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



enthusiasm compelled them — but it was his hand that 
fashioned it into the Institution that in a few years 
came to be the wonder and pride of all North Carolina. 
How did he do it? The answer is that the vision he 
had seen so controlled him that he poured his life- 
blood into it, and fortunately for this and future 
generations he had an endowment of warm, rich blood 
that made him capable of achieving the largest results. 
He was the rare combination of the dreamer and the 
practical man of affairs. He saw the "heavenly 
vision" of duty and opportunity that comes to every 
great soul, ' ' and he was not disobedient to the heavenly 
vision." All men of large capacity see the noble 
structure they can rear to bless their fellows, but the 
love of ease and the pursuit of wealth cause most of 
them to turn aside and be disobedient to the high 
call. They like their bread "well buttered," and the 
"fine purpose" they once had dissolves in chasing the 
things that perish. 

Some one has said that "a man must consult his 
wife to be rich." It were truer to say that if a man 
wishes to serve humanity rather than to get rich he 
must mate with a kindred soul. How many men have 
sacrificed their worthy ambitions because they lacked 
the inspiration to altruism around the hearthstone! 
Fortunate was Charles Mclver that he found in his 
wife an inspiration and a co-worker, and fortunate 
was the State of North Carolina that the noble man 
it mourns was cheered and supported in the great 
work he accomplished by the brave woman who shared 



220 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



his ambition and his labors. Mclver felt this blessing 
in his life and he held with Euskin that "no man 
ever lived a right life who had not been chastened 
by a woman's love, strengthened by her courage, and 
guided by her devotion." When he began the agita- 
tion for a better chance for women and better public 
schools for all the children, going from county to 
county in the Teachers ' Institutes, his good wife often 
went with him and her enthusiasm touched the hearts 
of the mothers of the country, and when these evan- 
gels of a Better Chance left a county they had kindled 
a flame that has burned since with a steadily increas- 
ing light, and much of the educational renaissance 
in many of our counties can be traced to those seem- 
ingly small gatherings in the various county seats. I 
shall never forget the spirit of this patriotic couple as 
I saw it manifested in a little mountain town less than 
a score of years ago. I had heard they were holding 
a Teachers' Institute and had driven over just to 
spend a day with these friends, for I was on a short 
vacation. I walked into the dingy little court house, 
where there were gathered perhaps three score 
teachers, none of whom had ever seen inside of a high 
school and none of whom had ever received more than 
thirty or forty dollars a month for a four or five 
months' session, but, poorly prepared as they were 
and more wretchedly paid, they were the main hope of 
uplift for children in that county. As I walked in 
unobserved, Professor Mclver (not then "doctor") 
was drilling the teachers on how to teach arithmetic. 

221 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Nothing was ever so dry to me as mathematics or so 
uninteresting, but he spoke with clearness, enthusiasm 
and power, and invested the dry bones with life. It 
was not that he was wishing so much to pour the 
science of numbers into their heads, but that he was 
trying to give them enthusiasm in the work of teaching 
so that they would pour their lives into the lives of 
the scholars, and awake in them a desire for learning 
that would call forth the best that was in them. And 
as he talked with as much earnestness and vim as if 
the fate of the nation depended upon arousing those 
country teachers to see the greatness of their work 
and measure up to it, that dingy looking court house 
seemed illumined and those careworn and hitherto 
ambitionless faces shone with a new light. He had 
burned into their hearts the ambition and glory that 
animated his own soul, and the place had been trans- 
formed into holy ground, and the little company that 
entered the court house from a sense of duty went 
forth with a new resolve in their hearts and with a 
fresh baptism and new consecration to service. Since 
then I have heard Mclver evoke the applause of legis- 
latures that were carried by the resistless power of his 
logic and high appeal; I have seen him in gatherings 
where the titled and the world's great gave him 
applause and primacy; I have seen him in almost 
every high place where men were to be inspired to 
public service and love of country — for he was a 
man deeply concerned in whatever looked to the uplift 
of his fellows — but he never was so great to me as 

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CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



when he poured out his soul in bringing out the latent 
greatness of those mountain teachers who had before 
them the task of making brick without straw. He 
put himself in their places. He made them see that, 
just as surely as the sculptor saw an angel in the 
rock, he saw nobility and power in them, and sent 
them home with a faith that they could lead the little 
folks in humble homes into the highest places of use- 
fulness. And they, and like men and women all over 
the State, impelled by the high ambition implanted 
in them by Mclver, have done more for the true prog- 
ress of the State than all the captains of industry 
within its borders, for under the spell of Mclver's 
faith and enthusiasm they have kindled the ambition 
of thousands of youths who have given a new impulse 
to every department of industry and progress. And 
the influences he brought into being will live and grow 
with every passing year. 

There are few men who saw Mclver's great influ- 
ence in later years but who saw that the foundations 
of his power had been laid deeply by the service he 
rendered in those days of arduous labor, travelling 
from county to county, leaving the pleasures of home 
and access to books, literally being "in the saddle" 
month after month, and receiving only enough com- 
pensation to support his family. Every educator 
would glory to have won Mclver's proud place. Few 
would have paid the price. And Mclver was able 
to win the first place, not because he felt he was 
making sacrifice in arduous labor, but because he 

223 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



entered upon the hard work with his whole heart and 
found compensation in the touch of elbow to elbow 
with the struggling men and women whom he was 
able to help to a higher plane and to whom it was 
given him to impart a clearer vision so that they 
could walk with the immortals. Leadership that 
endures only comes through loving service. 

In 1886, Mr. Mclver came to Raleigh to teach in 
Peace Institute — then as now, a leading college for 
the education of women. I had only a few months 
previously moved to Raleigh and was editing a weekly 
newspaper. He had no duties at the Institute except 
in the class-room and my work was not heavy, and 
we both had time to dream dreams and to see much 
of each other in the few years from 1886 until 1891 
when he went to Greensboro as President of the State 
Normal and Industrial College, particularly before he 
entered upon the work, jointly with Dr. Edwin A. 
Alderman, as conductor of Teachers' Institutes. The 
walks and talks we had in those halcyon days when 
we planned the great things we hoped to do and 
rejoiced in youth and strength to overcome obstacles ! 
I count them as among the happiest of my life, for 
it was then that our souls were knit together and there 
came a comradeship and intimacy that had no inter- 
ruption in the years that followed, though our work 
denied the blessing of daily companionship and com- 
munion. He was as much interested in my newspaper 
dream that he helped me to realize as I was wrapped 
up in his dream of the great college for women that 

224 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



he lived to see become the crown of all colleges for 
women in the South. His faith and his enthusiasm 
were so great and his vision so clear that it was mag- 
netic and irresistible. 

His connection with a leading woman's college 
served to cause him to study the problems of woman's 
education. * * The conviction that the 

State was unjust to its daughters grew upon him day 
by day until the resolve to find or make a way for 
them took possession of him. I have long believed 
that no man does work that lives unless he hears 
the call of God to that work and heeds the call. I 
believe that Charles Mclver was called of God to the 
work that made his life glorious, and enables him, 
though dead, yet to speak, as surely as ever man was 
called to minister at sacred altars. The desire to be 
instrumental in the broader education of women 
took possession of him and became the master passion 
of his life. Nor was it because he merely wished to 
see women educated for their own elevation, but 
because he had the statesmanship to see that North 
Carolina would never come into its own until a genera- 
tion of educated mothers reared its sons and daugh- 
ters. The need was summed up in this expression to 
which he gave utterance in one form or another a thou- 
sand times : 

"When a man is educated it is simply one more taken 
from the list of ignorance, but in the education of a woman 
the whole family is taught, for she will pass on what she 
has learned to her children. The education of one woman 

225 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



is far more important for the world's advancement than 
that of one man." 

We had become so accustomed to see the son favored 
and so many people had denied the higher education 
of woman, that twenty years ago that declaration 
challenged attention and provoked discussion. There 
were not wanting those who declared that the women 
made better wives and mothers with the acquaintance 
of a little music and drawing than with a broad 
education, and there was strong and hostile opposition 
to the proposition to establish the new Normal College 
for women that Dr. Mclver championed, for that was 
the day when serious and organized opposition to 
what was erroneously called "State Aid" was at 
high-water mark, and when many good men were in 
antagonism to what has become the fixed policy of 
the State — a policy, too, that now has no opposition 
and that has demonstrated its wisdom. How much 
Mclver did to check the growth of the hostility to 
"State Aid" will never be known, but it was second 
to that of no other man and was prompted by nothing 
except the largest conception of the need of education. 
* * The story of how the College has grown 

from its ' ' hastily constructed, hideous brick building ' ' 
into an institution with property worth nearly half 
a million dollars is the brightest chapter of North 
Carolina's history of this decade. Every progressive 
step was first born in Mclver 's brain. When he had 
felt the pressing need of improvement, he set to work 
to convince the public of the need so that the money 



226 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



should be forthcoming. But no forward movement 
was made that did not draw greater drafts upon his 
energy and abundant vitality than upon the treasury 
of the State and the purses of generous friends. The 
Institution, under his leadership, has been established 
on broad foundations, and this session opened the day 
after his funeral with over six hundred students. 
It will grow under the fostering care of the State and 
the people, for he has given it such an impetus that 
it will do the work for which it was established. And 
it will be a perpetual monument to his broad states- 
manship and patriotism. 

But the establishment and enlargement of that 
Institution, while a monument to his genius and faith, 
was not the sole object of his educational zeal. The 
neglect of the higher education of woman caused 
him to throw his heart into the work of giving her a 
chance, but he could not be content with building up 
one mighty institution. His real purpose was to see 
the blessings of an education brought within the reach 
of every child in the State. And so he gave himself 
freely to every movement for education, going into 
the most remote district as well as into the biggest 
city. He grew to be the acknowledged educational 
leader of the State, and helped greatly to bring about 
the present Era of Good Feeling in North Carolina 
where the State, church, and private school teachers 
have no rivalry except to do the most for the educa- 
tion of all the children of the State. * * * 



227 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



The profession that he adopted made Dr. Mclver 
an educational statesman, but he was more than that. 
He was a patriot and a statesman in the broad sense. 
There was nothing of the aloofness of the student in 
him. He was a man and whatever concerned men 
interested him. He clasped hands with men of all 
callings who were working for the public welfare, 
whether it related to voting a tax for schools, holding 
fairs or reunions or civic celebrations, electing Gover- 
nors or Presidents, or exhibiting North Carolina's 
resources in a great exposition. He had civic virtue 
highly developed, and nobody in North Carolina ever 
sought his help in vain to advance any good cause, 
and when he gave his hand to an undertaking he 
went into it with all his heart and made himself felt. 
He was the soul of the notable Reunion of North Caro- 
linians at Greensboro which brought together hun- 
dreds of native born North Carolinians living in other 
States. Two years ago, when it looked like an appro- 
priation for the Jamestown Exposition would fail, he 
came to Raleigh and was its most zealous advocate. 
It would be difficult to name any movement — educa- 
tional, industrial, religious or political — that was mak- 
ing for the betterment of the State that did not feel 
the helpful touch of Charles D. Mclver. He was an 
optimist of the best type, and went about making 
others have faith in themselves and inspiring them 
with patriotism and civic virtue and public spirit. 
Other men will be found who will carry on the College 
and direct the public educational work, but his spirit 

228 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



of faith and hope and cheer will be missed in an 
hundred ways, and it was the thing that made him 
easily the most useful man in North Carolina and the 
best loved private citizen. It is not so much whether 
a man does this or that thing well that counts, but 
whether his presence and his life inspire others to 
follow his leadership of service to their fellows. 

Dr. Mclver had the faculty of uniting men of 
widely differing views and bringing them together to 
serve the public interest. He was a Democrat of the 
Bryan and Aycock type and yet his partisanship was 
not of the sort that denied him warm friendship 
among strong partisans of the other parties, and his 
association with men of all creeds nearly always 
resulted in making them better and more useful 
citizens, ready to do some public service. He saw 
the faculty for usefulness in promoting good schools, 
good roads, or other progress in every man of force, 
and he brought such men together for the betterment 
of the community and the State. Not a few men 
seemingly with nothing in common, were made friends 
and co-workers by Mclver 's genius in making oil 
and water mix. 

In politics he was a Democrat and believed in its 
fundamental principles. He believed in the people 
and had the same views as to their capacity and educa- 
tion that dominated Jefferson. He was concerned more 
about the fundamentals than about the party divisions 
upon fiscal policies, and he had more faith in the 
man than in the platform, though he never thought 

229 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



he could advance good government by mugwump vot- 
ing. At the same time, as the head of a great public 
institution, he never took such active part in political 
warfare as would deny to the institution the good- 
will and support of all parties, and he measured 
party leaders largely by their spirit toward public 
education. But you always knew where to find him 
on election day and his political views were an open 
book. If he had chosen the political career, it is 
doubtful if any man since Vance would have held 
to a greater degree the affection and confidence of the 
people. He had a larger fund of anecdotes and more 
humor than any public man of his generation and 
could use a joke or a story to clinch an argument as 
effectively as Vance. He was not unlike Bryan in 
many things. I never heard him speak that I did 
not recall the Nebraskan. Their resemblance probably 
was chiefly in their faith in the people and their desire 
to see that they get a fair chance and in their trans- 
parent sincerity and honesty. He was quick to dis- 
cern greatness in the men who came in the public eye 
in State or Federal politics. In 1894, before Bryan 
had become the leader of his party, Dr. Mclver saw 
the greatness in him that the whole world now acknowl- 
edges, and invited him to visit Greensboro and address 
the College girls. Bryan was too busy to come if he 
had to prepare a commencement address. "Come,' 
said Mclver, "and speak on the silver question." 
* * The friendship thus begun between these 

two men who had much in common ripened into an 



230 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYER 



affection that terminated only with the death of the 
North Carolina leader while he was welcoming the 
Nebraskan to the State. The eulogy of his dead 
friend pronounced by Bryan was a fitting funeral 
oration and will be read by generations yet unborn 
and inspire them to emulate Mclver's life of service. 

No life can be as noble as Mdver's unless it is 
God-directed. As a boy he gave his heart to the Great 
Teacher and always sat at His feet as an humble 
learner. His religion had about it the sunshine of 
gladness and was touched by no skepticism or bigotry. 
Though the loss of a personal friend to 
me is great and to the State beyond computation, I 
can but feel that if one must die it is a blessing that 
the summons should come in the full tide of useful- 
ness, without the wasting by disease. I know that 
he was ready — and when ' ' the clear call ' ' came to 
him he was prepared "to meet his pilot face to face." 

Not many months ago there came to Dr. Mclver a 
great temptation — the supreme temptation of his life. 
He had passed the forty-fifth year of his life and his 
twenty-fifth year in the teaching profession and 
poured himself into his work so completely that he 
had not had thought of making money, and sometimes 
he was oppressed by the thought that if his health 
should fail he would have nothing to take care of 
himself and his family. He was wont to say to his 
friends that as a teacher grew older and needed larger 
income, he could look forward to no increase in salary, 
but to an old age of privation. And that outlook 

231 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



was one that sometimes weighed upon his spirits. I 
shall never forget a long conference in Raleigh 
between Mclver, Joyner and myself that went far 
past midnight, less than a year ago, when Mclver put 
aside a temptation to make money that he might con- 
tinue the great work to which he had consecrated his 
life. An offer had come to him, an inviting offer, 
from a commercial enterprise of standing to accept 
an important position at a salary of $7,500 a year. 
Before that, he had declined several nattering offers 
to go to other States in the work of his profession. 
But, when an offer at a salary of three times what the 
State paid him was urged upon him by a broad- 
minded business man who saw that Mclver 's ability 
and energy would be a valuable asset, the duty of car- 
ing for his family and providing for old age caused 
him to give the proposition serious consideration. I 
knew he would never yield to the temptation just as 
I knew that most other men would have accepted the 
offer without a moment's hesitation, and yet he was 
troubled because he felt that his duty to his family 
and to himself could not be easily put aside to serve 
the State which paid him only enough for a omfortable 
living. He said he wished Joyner and myself, whom 
he esteemed as brothers, to advise him what course 
he ought to pursue. He thought he was holding the 
matter under advisement, but way down in his heart 
there was a devotion to the higher duty that would 
have prevented his acceptance of the business proposi- 
tion if it had carried a salary of twice seventy-five 

232 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



hundred dollars. He argued that, having given 
twenty years to the public, the time had come when he 
owed something to his family. Both Joyner and 
myself argued that he would be happy in no other work 
and the enlargement and growth of the College was 
a greater service to his family than if he could give 
them a million dollars. I shall never forget the reply 
he made to our argument: "It is very well, boys, 
for you both to tell me that I ought to stay and devote 
my life to the work. You are serving the public also, 
but Joyner owns property and faces no old age of 
poverty, and every lick that Daniels strikes he is 
adding value to his property that will give him an 
income if his health fails and care for his wife and 
children if he dies. I have not even a roof to my 
head that belongs to me and not a brick of all that I 
have builded is mine or could help my family if I 
should die." I was ashamed then that I had dared 
to put myself in the same class with him or to presume 
that my service to the public weal was comparable 
to his sacrifice. A silence fell upon us — the sort of 
silence that only comes between men who understand 
one another and love each other. He broke the silence. 
He had gone through his temptation and his trial. 
The advice he sought really had little to do with his 
victory, for if every friend had advised him to leave 
the work to which he had put his hand, he could not 
have done it. He loved it better than anything except 
his own flesh and blood. He thought he was consider- 
ing the offer, but there never was a moment when he 

233 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



could have accepted it, though remaining at the post 
of duty seemed to sacrifice his material interests and 
prevented any provision for old age. And as I looked 
Wednesday upon the splendid buildings he had 
erected at the College, his words came back to me that 
not one brick he had placed upon another belonged 
to him or would help to support his family or care 
for him in his old age. And yet, with that knowledge, 
he put aside the natural desire of the husband and 
father and threw himself into the work for humanity 
with fresh zeal. The incident was closed. His con- 
secration, new and complete, to his work gave him 
joy and happiness. When he had met and conquered 
the temptation to put making money in an honorable 
way and for the highest purpose above the vision he 
had seen and the duty he had accepted, there came 
to him a peace and a purpose that gave him larger 
vision and a higher ambition than he had hitherto 
known, and when he died he was planning greater 
things than his associates had dreamed he entertained. 
There never was a time when the temptation to leave 
his life-work could have moved him, but I have 
thought how much richer his good wife and children 
are because of his noble public service than if he had 
turned aside to make money for them. They have in 
the high purpose of his life the heritage of a love so 
great as to find alone in perfect sacrifice to a great 
and humane idea its best and final expression. 



234 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYEB 



GOVERNOR R. B. GLENN 
Extract from Message to the General Assembly of North Carolina 

In 1905, my predecessor, Governor C. B. Aycock, 
announced to the General Assembly in his message 
the loss by fire of the main building of the State 
Normal and Industrial College ; but today I announce 
a far greater loss than that of a few material buildings, 
for I speak of the sudden and sad death of its founder, 
mastermind, and beloved President, Dr. Charles D. 
Mclver. The buildings could be and were rebuilt, 
but the loss of Dr. Mclver can never be remedied or 
replaced. He conceived the idea of erecting a college 
for women, where they could be educated and trained 
to be worthy wives, mothers, and teachers of North 
Carolina's sons and daughters; and this splendid 
normal and industrial Institution thus erected for 
our women remains a monument to the devotion and 
patriotism of this brainy and philanthropic man. 
Educating, as it does, our women, can there be any 
institution in all the State that will so commend itself 
to you, and need I tell you that State pride demands 
that we so maintain it as to give our girls the most 
thorough mental and moral training and development ? 
Carefully read the report of the Acting President, 
and then have him and the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to come before your committee and go over 
with them, what they request, and then vote this 
College what you deem necessary for the proper 
equipment and maintenance of an Institution whose 
value cannot be estimated in dollars and cents. 

235 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



DR. C. ALPHONSO SMITH 

In Raleigh News and Observer , 

* * Of all the men who have given directive 

thought and constructive effort to the spread of educa- 
tion in North Carolina, not one seems to me so 
clearly born with a mission as Dr. Mclver. Though 
there was sympathy in this man's heart for all high 
undertakings and generous impulses, the education 
of the boys and girls of North Carolina was always 
first. Had you waked him up any night, however 
laborious the day may have been, and hinted to him 
some dimly formed plan by which you thought it 
possible that the benefits of education might be given 
to two instead of to one, he would have hurried with 
you to his office and in utter forgetfulness of self 
would have talked and worked and rejoiced until 
morning and victory came together. Dr. Mclver and 
his mission were one. 

Among the multiple forces that guided and enriched 
Dr. Mclver 's character, enthusiasm must be given a 
primal place. It was an enthusiasm devoid of weak- 
ness and not to be evoked except by the wide horizons 
that beckoned to large achievements and to abiding 
results. It was an enthusiasm based not on ignorance 
but on faith in the supreme worth of education, on 
hope for the better day that he saw dawning, and on 
a love for North Carolina and her people that knew 
neither variableness nor the shadow of turning. 

Nothing great," says Emerson, "was ever achieved 

236 



C i 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



without enthusiasm." Let us teach this great truth 
afresh in our schools, and let the name and fame of 
Charles Duncan Mclver be our illustration. 

His was a happy life, a life of ceaseless activity, but 
filled and thrilled with an ideal, and ennobled by 
fruitful and unselfish service. There is grief today 
in many a home and school where the picture of this 
dead leader looks down upon the embodied results of 
his own heart and brain. But to all who knew him 
there comes the thought of a great work nobly done, 
and the inspiration of a far greater work that through- 
out all the years his memory and example will help 
to carry onward. 

And thou, Greensboro, to thy trust 

Eeceive and keep, 
Keep safe his dedicated dust, 

His sacred sleep. 

So shall thy lovers, come from far, 

Mix with thy name, 
As morning star with evening star, 

His splendid fame. 

COL. PAUL B. MEANS 
In Raleigh News and Observer 

I was travelling home, by necessity, on a very belated 
train last Sunday morning, and as I passed the State 
Normal and Industrial College I thought of our dear, 
very dear friend, Mclver, as a great man, and of his 
great work for our State. But we apply the term great 
alike to Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon and St. Paul, 

237 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Luther, John Knox and Wesley ; the difference between 
the first three and the last four being as wide as wide 
can be. This is because there is no true standard among 
men for greatness. But with God there is a fixed and 
true standard. In the Bible, He continually gives us 
examples of men great in His sight. And, therefore, 
when I want to know how great any man is I just try 
to see how far his life and character conform to those of 
some man whom God plainly sets before us, in His 
word, as great in His sight. 

As I sat in that fast moving car, surrounded by 
many people, but alone with my thoughts, and looked 
out, ' ' through the rain and mist ' ' of the morning and 
of my tears, on that wondrous work of Mclver's to 
which God called him, as surely as he called St. Paul 
as Apostle to the Gentiles, I mentally turned to the 
Bible for Mclver 's prototype. Immediately I thought 
of Stephen ; and, having my Bible with me, I investi- 
gated the record on the train, after I had run out 
the similitude mentally. 

Stephen was the first Deacon. The duties of his 
work were to minister unto "neglected" women, and 
his work was especially the care of the poor and 
needy women. Mclver's life-work was the same. He 
preached and performed the gospel of education unto 
the poor and for the poor. And O how gloriously he 
did his work, from his first answer to God's call 
in the campaign that he and Alderman made in 1889 
for the cause of education, and woman's education 
especially, until — as Stephen was the first Deacon — 

238 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



he was the first President of North Carolina's first 
great institution for the education of all women and 
particularly the poor girls of our State. And he never 
ceased his labors for this great cause, even after the 
enormous responsibilities of the Presidency were cast 
upon him, up to the very hour of his death. Like 
Stephen he was advocating his cause till death came. 

All the great factories, railroads and other institu- 
tions of commercialism of our State pale into utter 
insignificance when compared with the actual utility 
and beneficence for humanity of the State Normal 
and Industrial College for Women at Greensboro. 
These great institutions are for time and earthly prog- 
ress and prosperity only; Dr. Mclver 's work was 
for all time and eternity and for heaven. 

Stephen was "a man full of faith and of the Holy 
Ghost." 

Mclver 's fullness of faith is certified beyond all cavil, 
by the existence today of the State Normal College. 
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 
dence of things not seen. ' ' It stands and will ever stand 
as "the substance of things hoped for" and prayed 
for by Mclver. It is and ever will be "the evidence 
of things not seen" by any one in North Carolina 
until the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, guided 
him into "all truth" about it and revealed to his 
seer-eyes the "vision splendid" as it stands today, 
the supreme glory of our State, always to increase in 
splendor as the ages go on. In this work and others, 
like Stephen, with "power" from above he "did great 



239 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



wonders and miracles among the people," in getting 
them willingly and gladly to do what to others seemed 
impossible, because "they were not able to resist the 
wisdom and the spirit by which he spake." 

"Full of the Holy Ghost." "We often looked in 
wonder and amazement at the tremendous energy and 
power and rapid action and movement of the man 
mentally and physically. It was the Holy Ghost 
urging him on. And joyously and brilliantly he 
obeyed the impulse as does the morning star. He 
wrought his "mighty signs and wonders by the power 
of the Spirit of God. ' ' 

At the trial of Stephen "all that sat in the council, 
looking steadfastly on him saw his face as it had been 
the face of an angel. ' ' 

And so, also, many thousands of us, all over North 
Carolina, have seen the face of Mclver shine "as it 
had been the face of an angel," when he talked in 
private and publicly of the great vision of his soul. 
The man or woman who hasn't seen his face shine, 
when they heard him talk, simply and sadly had 
' ' eyes that see not. ' ' 

And we have no possible doubt that, when the silver 
cord was loosed and the golden bowl was broken so 
suddenly that day, on the great Bryan train, like 
Stephen, he "looked up steadfastly into heaven" and 
"saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man stand- 
ing on the right hand of God;" and that the "Lord 
Jesus received his spirit, ' ' and made his face resplen- 
dent forever by the light of the Sun of Righteousness. 



240 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Stephen was the first martyr to the cause of Chris- 
tianity. Mclver was the first martyr to the cause 
of education for women in North Carolina. His 
strenuosity in this great cause, like Stephen's ardor, 
zeal, fearless and defiant courage in his last great 
speech prematurely produced his death as a sacrifice 
on the altar of love for humanity. 

By Stephen 's death all the disciples were ' ' scattered 
abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria" 
— all Palestine. And they ' ' went everywhere preaching 
the word. ' ' Stephen 's death caused a widespread and 
effective "preaching of the word" that would not 
then, at a critical moment, have occurred without it. 
Mclver 's death has stirred all the true hearts of 
North Carolina — the Palestine of America — for our 
State Normal and Industrial College as nothing else 
could have done. It has caused all our people to turn 
their attention and fix their eyes and their hearts upon 
this Institution with an affection and tenderness that 
Mclver, with all his ' ' power, ' ' never could have done, 
alive, and it has caused them to "purpose in their 
hearts," as nothing else could have done, that this 
State Normal shall forever be loyally supported and 
sustained, as unique in itself for our commonwealth, 
and as God's own work through His great child — 
Charles Duncan Mclver. 

And, finally, his death has carried the fame and 
the glory of this Institution "abroad throughout all 
the regions ' ' of our Republic in the sweet, soft tones of 
sorrow and mourning, eternal as the song of the 

241 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



morning stars. And these results of his death, which 
seemed an immeasurable catastrophe at the time, are 
God's benedictions on Dr. Mclver as a veritable son 
of His, just as we know that Stephen was. And the 
fact of the conformity of his life and character and 
death to the life and character and death of one whom 
God selected and set before us as a great man in His 
sight, is God Almighty's certificate to us of Dr. 
Mclver 's greatness as a man and also of the greatness 
of his work for North Carolina. 

E. D. W. CONNER 
In North Carolina Day Pamplet — Extract from Sketch 

Today there are thousands of boys and girls in North 
Carolina who are at school, and looking forward to 
bright futures, because Charles D. Mclver was their 
friend. They may never have seen him, and he may 
never have seen them; but he loved them; worked 
for them; spoke for them; wrote for them; fought 
and won battles for them. His picture ought to hang 
before the eyes of every school child in North Caro- 
lina. His name ought to be on their tongues. They 
ought to know by heart the story of his life. * * 

The building of the State Normal and Industrial 
College is the greatest work done in North Carolina 
within the last twenty-five years. If Dr. Mclver had 
done nothing else, this work alone would place him 
among the greatest men of North Carolina. But he 
did much more. Wherever there was a word to be 
spoken in the cause of education, especially the educa- 

242 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



tion of Southern boys and girls, his voice was heard. 
''No meeting of Southern educators seemed complete 
without him; no educational program satisfactory 
until his name appeared on it. " * * * 

A few years ago several patriotic men from various 
sections of our country, who are interested in South- 
ern education, came together and formed the "South- 
ern Education Board." Their purpose is to help 
improve the rural schools of the South. Dr. Mclver 
was one of the leading members of this board. When 
the board decided to send speakers all over the South 
to talk to the people about education, they put Dr. 
Mclver at the head of that great work. . Perhaps no 
man in our country did more for the education of 
the boys and girls on Southern farms than he did. 

Not only did he work himself, but he persuaded 
many others, men and women, to fight for the cause 
of the children. Proud of the fact that the first vote 
he had ever cast was a vote for local taxation for 
schools, by his great eloquence and earnestness he per- 
suaded thousands of others to follow his example. 
Local taxation for longer terms, better school-houses, 
better teachers, and better supervision — this was 
his plea. Eloquently, earnestly, and successfully he 
pleaded the cause of the backwoods boy and the 
cross-roads girl when they had no other powerful 
friend to help them. 

The news of Dr. Mclver 's death carried grief to 
thousands who had known and loved him. Through- 
out the South, in remote States of the North and West, 



243 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



men who had been encouraged by his words and 
inspired by his spirit felt a sudden vacancy in their 
lives. 

In his own beloved State grief was universal. In 
every corner of North Carolina the news was heard 
with bowed head and moist eyes. Men on the street 
corners, women in the school-room, children in the 
remotest rural district — all felt that the State had 
suffered a terrible calamity. A partisan press in the 
midst of a heated political campaign ceased their 
warfare, and at his grave united in eulogy of the dead. 
With one accord they mourned his death as the loss 
of the State's most useful citizen. But no class of 
our people felt his loss so deeply as the teachers, 
whose greatest friend he was. Hundreds of teachers 
caught from his presence a spirit that sent them to 
their difficult tasks, from the college recitation-room 
to the humble log-cabin school-house in the backwoods, 
with hearts afire and souls inspired to give their best 
to their country and to humanity, caring naught for 
the vast personal sacrifices frequently involved. 

MISS MARY FAISON DE VANE 
To Duplin County Alumnae 

What fortunate women we have been to have had 
our college education guided by him ! 

In all the crowd of young women that gathered at 
the Normal College, he knew the characteristics of 
every one. He was a very close observer. Little in 
outward appearance or character escaped his eye. 

244 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Coming and going in a busy career he would invariably 
surprise one with little remarks of personal interest, 
regarding things that you would not have suspected 
he knew or cared about. No matter was too small 
for his attention. He was never too busy to help 
any one. There were some things he always impressed 
upon the students. He was a staunch believer in the 
divine — in every man and woman. How many times 
he reminded us of the obligation of wealth and posi- 
tion ! Nothing was so repulsive to him as any assumed 
superiority of one class of students over another. So 
many times he would urge that there be no clans among 
us, that all stand together for the good we could do 
each other and the world, reminding us that both the 
girl without so-called wordly advantages and the girl 
with them, had each much to give the other. He 
realized that in society woman leads rather a narrow 
life regarding classes and that to make us as true and 
good as we should be we must know more of all people. 

How many times he talked about our giving our 
services ! He urged us not to be mere consumers, but 
to give back to the world all that we could — not like 
sponges absorb and give nothing. 

The love of his native State was a passion with him 
and he taught us to love her as our mother and rever- 
ence her accordingly — that the rich and poor among 
us should give all we have to develop her people in 
every way. We learned that no matter how fortunate 
we might be in worldly possessions, we owed our per- 
sonal effort as well as our money to our State. 

245 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



So many times he spoke to us of the dignity of 
labor — how work well done aided the world in every 
way. 

His courage and endurance inspired every one with 
whom he came in contact. Some serious situations 
confronted the College during his administration and 
in none of these did the students fail him. He 
imparted to them his splendid spirit and they con- 
fronted not only difficulties but calamities quietly and 
courageously. The same spirit is helping them to fight 
the battles of life today. 

I would not neglect to speak of his brightness. The 
time has not come with me when I can speak much 
of this, but his presence gave sunshine wherever he 
went. 

One of the most striking characteristics of Dr. 
Mclver was his high regard for woman. He had great 
faith in her mentality and her virtues. His was not 
the exterior gallantry in trifles, that counts with some, 
but the true gallantry of the heart. He gave his life 
to the uplifting of woman, for he believed that through 
her would come the uplift of the State. 

Prof. Claxton said in his telegram to Mrs. Mclver : 
"Thousands whose life he helped will mourn his 
death. ' ' We know four thousand whom he has helped 
directly, and what shall we say of those numbers 
indirectly aided? He was our champion in the legis- 
lative halls of this State, and who will plead our cause 
as he? 



246 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIYER 



Our noble chief, we loved him in life, and death 

cannot take his spirit from us. We believe that his 

great soul is safe in a higher world — that ' ' somewhere, 

out of human view, whate'er his hands are set to do 

is wrought with tumult of acclaim." His work here 

is bequeathed to us. May we be worthy of it and 

equal to it. 

B. W. SPILLMAN 

In Daily Record 

In the death of President Charles D. Mclver there 
passed away a man easily of national caliber and 
whose fame had gone into every part of our country 
where men keep themselves informed regarding the 
educational movements of the country. 

I have had occasion in recent years to visit twelve 
state universities and a great number of colleges. 
When men in these state universities and state col- 
leges discussed matters educational in North Caro- 
lina, the name of Mclver was almost without exception 
the first to be mentioned. He made the educational 
stock of North Carolina shoot skyward in the regions 
beyond our State limits. 

He made his own place and stuck to it. He was 
loyal to his own State. He was truly an American 
citizen. Thousands of our brightest men leave our 
State every year. It is natural. The man ambitious 
to do great things naturally moves toward the centers 
of population. 

The boy on the farm moves to the village; later to 
the nearest town; then to the city. Dr. Mclver did 

247 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



not thus drift to the communities offering the oppor- 
tunity. He created the opportunity and was master 
of the situation. He made things come to pass. 
He did things, he wrought well, he rests. 

EEV. MILLARD A. JENKINS 
In Raleigh News and Observer 

Dr. Charles Mclver dead! Can it be possible 
that this great-brained, great-hearted, open-handed, 
sympathetic man is gone from us ? Gone so suddenly, 
and at a time when he was so much needed ? No man 
among us could be missed more. The girls struggling 
for an education, who always found in him an 
interested and sympathetic friend, will miss him. The 
boys, ambitious to make something of their lives that 
will count for God and the world's good, who never 
sought his kindly advice and helping hand in vain, 
will miss him. Every man who has ever come in con- 
tact with his great and inspiring personality will miss 
him. 

While our hearts go out to the stricken home, and 
the great school which his efforts founded and his 
untiring labors established until it is now the pride 
of every loyal North Carolinian, it is, moreover, a 
sorrow in which all have our personal part, for Dr. 
Mclver was "minister to every man." 

Yes, Mr. Editor, as one who, in the younger days, 
when the way seemed dark and discouraging, found 
in him a struggling boy's friend, I gladly respond to 



248 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



the request to add my word of tribute to his honored 
and blessed memory. 

It was fourteen years ago. He was conducting an 
institute at Asheville, N. C. I was there as a young 
student, wondering if I should give up the fight, or 
press on. I attended every one of his lectures. It was 
a blessed ministry to me. I have felt the power of his 
life from that day till this, inspiring me to make the 
most of every opportunity, and to live, not for selfish 
ambition, but for the little I might be able to add 
towards making the world brighter and better for 
others. 

I shall never forget his gentle spirit, his whole- 
some optimism, his thoroughly Christian enthusiasm, 
his marked desire to fix in the minds of the young 
men and women who sat under him high ideals of 
life, the keen interest he showed in the individual, 
helping him on the road to higher aspirations, and 
especially shall I never forget how he took me by the 
hand as kindly as a father, and spoke to me words of 
encouragement which burned into my youthful soul, 
gave me a new conception of life, and filled me with 
resolutions, which not only strengthened me then, 
but have had their share in helping me in many a 
trying hour since. 

Dr. Mclver never knew how much it meant to me 
then, nor how much it has meant to me ever since. 
He never knew that he really taught me what it meant 
to live. But this is only one incident. There are 
hundreds of others who might tell the same story. 

249 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



He had but one purpose, and to that purpose the great 
and good man consecrated his life — that of inspiring 
the youth of the land to lofty thinking and noble 
living. His has been the guiding spirit that has led 
many a young man and woman away from a meaning- 
less life to a life of usefulness and happiness. 

One of his favorite quotations was: "If we work 
upon marble it will perish; if we engrave upon brass 
time will destroy it; if we rear monuments they will 
crumble to dust — but if we work upon the tablets of 
human hearts, they will brighten to all eternity. ' ' 

This Charles Duncan Mclver did, honor to his name. 

No, he is not dead. It can not be. Such as he can 
never die. He took heaven at a bound, and now lives 
in that new life, which, while here he lived in the faith 
of it, he so beautifully exemplified. And though he 
walks no more among us, though no longer we hear 
his voice pleading for the better education of the youth 
of our land, he lives. Charles Duncan Mclver lives — 
lives in the hearts of the students he taught ; lives in 
the hearts of the friends he cherished; lives in the 
hearts of his fellow laborers for a better citizenry for 
our noble State — yes, lives in the hearts of all North 
Carolinians. 

He has built his own monument, and one which 
time shall not be able to destroy. We are the poorer 
for his untimely going, but we are much the richer 
for his having lived. How appropriate the words of 
Psalm 21:4 — "He asked life of Thee. Thou gavest 
it him, even length of days for ever and ever. ' ' 

250 






CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



J. B. CARLYLE 

In Wake Forest Student 

Few men have exerted a larger or more enduring 
influence on the life of North Carolina than Dr. C. 
D. Mclver, whose useful career was ended by sudden 
death on the 17th of September last. * * He 
began his career, as many another country youth has 
done, in the humble work of a teacher. But to him 
the tasks of the teacher were radiant with the power 
of a transforming vision. The right of the child to 
the best possible training was burned into his soul 
with the urgency of a heavenly call. Canvassing the 
State, holding county institutes, he urged the people 
to meet their duty in the education of their children. 
Believing the supreme educational need of the State 
to be better facilities for the training of women, he 
directed his efforts to the establishment of an institu- 
tion to meet this defect. The State Normal and Indus- 
trial College for women at Greensboro was the result 
of these efforts. In the beneficent work and high 
ideals of this noble institution the spirit of Dr. Mclver 
is fittingly embodied. But no one institution could 
limit the interests and activities of a life on fire with 
a passion for the education of all the children. Per- 
haps to him as to no other is due credit for the 
adoption of the principle of the local tax in North 
Carolina's public educational system — a principle 
which has been the keynote in the forward educational 
movement of recent years. 

251 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



With the vision of a seer and the enthusiasm of 
the crusaders of old, and yet with the cool, calculating 
wisdom of a statesmanship that laid foundations for 
the future, he planned and agitated and persevered 
toward the goal of a commonwealth uplifted, broad- 
ened and brightened by the general diffusion of 
knowledge. He was in the best sense an educational 
statesman. 

Loyal friends will rear a bronze statue in his mem- 
ory at the institution which he builded and loved, 
but his real monument will stand perennial in the 
grateful hearts of little children whose lives will be 
enriched and brightened through agencies originating 
in his fertile brain and benevolent heart. 

The historian of the future, recording the names of 
men who have given lustre to Carolina's fame and 
made large contributions to the enrichment of the 
life of her people, will place in the front rank the 
name of Charles Duncan Mclver. 



252 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



CHAELES DUNCAN McIVEE 
A KNIGHT OF YESTERDAY 

List well to me and I to thee 

Will sing a wondrous lay, 
Of a good fight made by a knight — 

A knight of yesterday. 

No glittering armor did he wear, 

No shining blade he bore; 
But just as valiantly he fought 

As those good knights of yore, 
Who in the days of chivalry, 

Had nobly gone before. 

His foe was not of humankind, 

His fight was not with man, 
But 'gainst the power of Ignorance 

He boldly raised his hand, 
And right and left did smite amain, 

And fearlessly did stand. 

He strove that every little child, 

Whate 'er its lot might be, 
Should not in mental darkness dwell, 

But look abroad and see 
The beauteous light that knowledge gives, 

And giving, makes man free. 

And, God be praised, the yielding foe 

He ever backward drove, 
Nor turned aside nor e'er forgot 

The end for which he strove, 
Strong in the strength that always comes 

From an abiding love. 



253 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



His life is done, his race is run, 
No more for him the fray; 

But in his sleep I pray God keep 
This knight of yesterday. 



-R. D. Douglas, in State Normal Magazine. 



TO DE. C. D. McIVEE 

Strong son of great old Tar Heel State, 
For you in grief we bow the head 
And place your body with the dead — 

Oh, thus 'tis ordered us by Fate. 

Well hast thou wrought within the space 
Allotted thee within the sphere 
In which we move from year to year, 

Each striving by kind Heaven's grace. 

Where once was only virgin soil 

Now stands a monument to thee 

For education of the free — 
A glorious product of thy toil. 

There is a higher realm for thee 
Unknown as yet to mortal ken, 
Thy spirit takes its flight from men 

To live throughout Eternity. 

— Gh, in The Trinity Archive. 



254 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



CHARLES D. McIVER 

Yesterday he stood, master of men, 
Strong in vigorous manhood, crowned 
With every grace of mind. His soul 's 
Clear eye, his steady hand alike 
Knew duty's call. His thought, his life 
Was ours, patriot, teacher, friend. 

Daughters, who weep midst a thousand weeping women, 
Son, whose father shall be revered by myriad sons, 
Wife, whose faithful, happy days empowered his, 
Thy grief is ours; Light he gave to us, 
Would our bleeding hearts could strengthen yours, 
Whose loss is ours and all's. 

— M. J., in Raleigh News and Observer. 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 

Rest, son of Carolina, sweetly rest, 

The boon long self -denied now meetly thine; 

Obedience yield we to the call Divine, 

Our comfort this: — The Master knoweth best. 

He knoweth best, yet sore we feel our need: 

So great the void, we may not smile nor sing, 

But, bowed in grief, our altar-gift we bring 

And mid our tears look mutely up and plead. 

Grant us with him to see where honor lies, 

To build for God and man, and not for self, 

To face the future with untroubled eyes 

Intent on lasting service, not on pelf. 

Thus life lives on its purpose to fulfil 

When weary eyelids close and tired hands grow still. 

— W. C. Smith, in State Normal Magazine. 
255 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



TO DR. McIVER 

Sometimes a man dies old and full of years, 
And men say: "It is best that he is dead, 
His work is done; his labors now are past, 
His influence was good, and well he lived. 
But he had weary grown of earth, his place 
Was filled by others. 'Tis best that he is gone." 

Sometimes a man dies young — sometimes before 

He reaches manhood, or plans his work, 

And men say: " 'Tis sad that he is dead. 

His work is scarce begun, if he had lived, 

What influence for good he might have had! 

He'd but begun to live: 'Tis sad that he should die. " 

But sometimes in the midst of life's hard strife 
When he has reached his prime, a man may die, 
When all his work is planned and pointed out 
To thousands. When he has 'complished much 
And shown to others how to work and pray, 
And carry on the work which he so well begun. 

Then men will say: "A noble man is dead, 
He lived his years so well that others may 
Take up the work he left, and bless the man 
Who pointed out such noble work to do. 
His influence was felt by all he knew 
And by all who knew some other whom he knew, 
And will reach down time's tide through many years, 
And bless the lives of thousands yet unborn." 

And such a man is he of whom I write — 
A man whose mighty heart has ceased to beat. 
And though he died when life was at its height, 
And when it seemed that he was needed most, 
He lived illimitable years in deeds and worth, 
And by these things a man is truly great. 

256 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



And while we mourn his loss we can but feel 
That heaven was kind in lending us a little while 
One of the noblest. And could we see beyond, 
We might behold him in some fairer clime, 
A grander work pursuing, while he waits 
For those he loved and helped to follow on. 



-Helen C. Hicks, in State Normal Magazine. 



257 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 
William C. Smith 

From the Author's sketch appearing in the Biographical History 

of North Carolina. Reprinted here, with changes, through the 

courtesy of the publisher, Mr. Charles L. Van Noppen 

One who labored steadfastly for the uplift of his 
f ellowmen — such, in brief, is the life-history of Charles 
Duncan Mclver. The spirit of unselfishness which 
animated him, his whole-souled devotion to noble 
endeavors, the efficiency of his labors and their endur- 
ing results — are they not written in the foregoing 
tributes from press and people? Numerous though 
these tributes and various the sentiments expressed, 
the testimony as to his efficiency is unanimous, — the 
verdict is one : He was the State 's most useful citizen. 
Thus the people whom he served bear record, and we 
know that their record is true. It but remains to give 
in outline the simple story of his useful life. 

Born September 27, 1860, on a farm near Sanford, 
in Moore County, North Carolina, Charles D. Mclver 
early learned some of life's most wholesome lessons. 
Economy, self-denial and bodily toil were his in early 
youth and they continued to abide with him in the years 
that followed. 

The region around what is now the town of Sanford 
was peopled largely by settlers whose ancestors came 
from the Highlands of Scotland. Evander Mclver, 
when eight years old, bade farewell to his rugged 
birthplace, the Isle of Skye, and with his father made 
his new home in the pleasant sand hills of North 

258 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



Carolina. In his son, Matthew Henry, the father of 
Charles D. Mclver, were exemplified the many ster- 
ling traits that history shows to be characteristic of 
the Highland Scotch. Among these traits may be 
mentioned earnest piety, devotion to liberty, respect 
for law and order, and love for education. A success- 
ful farmer, a respected elder in the Presbyterian 
Church, a useful and influential citizen, he was an 
admirable type of that class upon which in greatest 
measure rests the stability of state and society. A 
similar description applies to the maternal ancestors 
of Charles D. Mclver, who were of Scotch and English 
descent. To his mother, whose maiden name was 
Harrington, and who on her maternal side is descended 
from the McNeills of Scotland, the son ascribed the 
formative and directive influences of his early years. 
No small measure of the fruit of his useful life was 
of seed of her careful sowing. Leal and true — these 
Scotch and English ancestors. Decided in their convic- 
tions on questions of church and state, yet tolerant 
and charitable ; patriotically responding to the call of 
the South in her hour of need, and bravely giving 
themselves to the rebuilding of waste places in the 
dark years that followed; fearers of God, and sup- 
porters of schools and churches : — it is worth something 
to be born in a community of which such men are 
citizens and to reckon them among one's neighbors 
and personal friends. 

Amid the thrifty and orderly influences of this 
Christian home and community, in attendance upon 

259 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



the excellent private schools of the neighborhood, and 
in the daily performance of all the various labors 
that fall to the lot of the healthy farmer boy, the 
subject of this sketch spent the first seventeen years 
of his life. Here were laid the foundations of that 
vigorous health which enabled him to stand so well the 
mental and physical strain of later years, and here 
were implanted that love for man and nature, and that 
intelligent and sympathetic appreciation of the needs 
of our rural commonwealth, which proved valuable 
forces in fitting him to become our most successful 
leader in the great cause of universal education. 

The fall of 1877 found our farmer lad enrolled 
as a student of the University of North Carolina. 
Mindful of the fact that there were other and younger 
members of his family to be educated, and preferring 
to meet his own expenses, he secured the necessary 
funds through personal notes given to a near kinsman 
and by his vacation earnings on the farm. Here he 
spent four profitable years, graduating in 1881 with 
the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In scholarship he 
took high rank, leading his class in Greek and French, 
and sharing with three others the honors in Latin. 
He entered heartily into the new and wider life, 
studied men as well as books, and soon became a leader 
among his fellows. Among the students in attendance 
upon the University at this period were some whose 
later records are not unfamiliar to the people of North 
Carolina, as the names of Aycock, Alderman, Dough- 
ton, Gattis, Murphy, Strange and Joyner will indicate. 

260 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



The ties here formed lasted through life. His love 
for Alma Mater was beautiful to behold. She has 
enrolled no more loyal son. In the busy later years 
he permitted no engagement to be made that would 
prevent his attendance upon the annual commence- 
ment exercises, and, with one unavoidable exception, 
he was present at every commencement during the 
twenty-five years that followed his graduation. He 
often spoke of the debt of gratitude he owed to his 
instructors, saying of one yet living, "No man can 
come under his influence without being imbued to 
some extent with State pride and tolerance and a 
longing to be of some service to so good a State and 
so great a people." And again, in referring to this 
period of his life, he is quoted as saying: "Another 
man to whom I am greatly indebted is my professor 
of Latin, whose stimulating genius inculcates in 
all the youth he touches self-reliance and the 
audacity to undertake large tasks." State pride, a 
longing to be of some service, the audacity to under- 
take large tasks, — how well young Mclver learned 
these lessons ! 

Undecided as yet upon his life work, he turned to 
the profession of teaching, and in the fall of 1881 
became assistant in a private school in Durham, 
North Carolina. His ability won quick recognition, 
and in the spring of the same scholastic year he was 
made principal of the school. In May, 1882, he cast 
his first vote, this being in favor of a local tax for 
the support of the Durham public school system. The 



261 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



fact is worthy of record in that as a private school 
man he voted for a measure which, though for the 
public good, seemed decidedly against his own personal 
interests. He assisted in the establishment of the 
Durham Graded Schools, and, after serving them as 
principal for one and one-half years, resigned to accept 
a similar position and to perform a similar work in 
the schools of Winston. Associated with him in the 
organization of these latter schools was Dr. Calvin H. 
Wiley, at that time chairman of the board of education. 
It cannot be doubted that from this famous school man 
the young teacher learned much that served to quicken 
his interest in the educational life of his State. Here, 
too, in the person of one of his assistants, he was 
destined to find a co-worker who thenceforth became 
the inspiration and benediction of his life. At 
Winston he remained from February, 1884, until Sep- 
tember, 1886, at which time he accepted a call to 
Peace Institute, Raleigh, North Carolina, where, as 
principal of the literary department, he remained until 
June, 1889. 

In the meantime he had fully decided upon his life- 
work, and rejecting attractive offers of partnerships 
in business and law, strove to make himself master of 
his chosen profession — teaching. He put himself in 
touch with the quickening forces of the time, and 
sought to add to the strength of the old, the inspira- 
tion of the new era. Visits of inspection were made 
to schools of promise, and conferences sought with 
able educational leaders. The ideas thus obtained were 



262 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



accepted, modified or rejected, as the actual work of 
the schoolroom proved them valuable and practical 
or the reverse. He early associated himself with the 
North Carolina Teachers' Assembly as one of its active 
members and supporters. The vacation periods of 
every year were devoted to work in county institutes 
and in State summer schools. In addition to his 
labors as teacher and lecturer, he served as principal 
of the State Summer Normal School at Sparta. While 
thus availing himself of the means at hand to promote 
the interests of public education, he was quick to 
realize the inadequacy of the work as then conducted. 

"The majority of teachers, " he reports in 1887, "cannot 
go a great distance to attend normal schools. Small salaries 
and short school terms render it in many cases impossible. 
Efficient county institutes should be brought within the reach 
of every teacher in the State. ' ' * 

Here we have presented in few words the lines of 
future educational reform. Institutes within the reach 
of every teacher — will he do aught to accomplish 
this? Larger salaries for teachers, a longer school 
term, with the increased appropriations which these 
imply and the higher professional equipment and bet- 
ter service which they in turn demand — will he do 
more than call the attention of the State Superin- 
tendent to these needs? But we must not anticipate. 

To the urgent need of better qualified teachers 
those interested in education now began to give earnest 



* Biennial report of State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
1887-'88, page 40. 

263 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



attention. Through the agency of the Teachers' 
Assembly, petitions for the establishment of a normal 
training school were several times presented to the 
Legislature — but without effect. Feeling that more 
active steps should be taken, Charles D. Mclver, in 
1889, made a stirring speech before his fellow educa- 
tors at their annual meeting, which resulted in the 
appointment of a committee, of which he was made 
chairman, to appear before the Legislature at its next 
session and personally present and urge the adoption 
of a bill for the establishment of a training school 
for teachers. 

On a day agreed upon the members of the committee 
appeared before the General Assembly, presented the 
bill and advocated its passage. The chairman, being 
at the time a resident of Raleigh, was in a position 
to labor continuously in behalf of this measure of 
which henceforth he was the recognized champion. 
He met with little encouragement and with much 
opposition, but so convincingly did he press home his 
arguments in personal conferences with members of 
the Legislature, that, to the surprise of all, the bill 
passed the Senate by a large majority and failed in 
the House by only a few votes. 

Although the General Assembly did not at this 
time provide for the establishment of a State Normal 
College, it wisely transferred the appropriation 
hitherto devoted to the eight Summer Normal Schools 
to the maintenance of a system of county institutes. 
Thus provision was made for carrying into effect 

264 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



the recommendation urged by our Sparta normal 
school Superintendent of bringing institutes within 
reach of every teacher in the State. Charles D. Mclver 
and Edwin A. Alderman, then superintendent of the 
Goldsboro Schools, were induced to take charge of 
this work, and were therefore appointed State Insti- 
tute Conductors. 

Now began one of the most important campaigns 
ever conducted in the State, and perhaps one of the 
most interesting in the history of public education. 
For three years, from September, 1889, to September, 
1892, winter and summer, these men preached a 
crusade in behalf of universal education. In every 
county and in every important city and town in the 
State, by lectures, by teaching, by public addresses, 
by conferences with teachers and school committeemen, 
by talks with farmers, editors, county officials and 
politicians — by every approved method, in short, 
known to advocate and reformer — the work was 
diligently and vigorously prosecuted. The good 
results of their labors are with us today, and will 
continue to bless the commonwealth when we, our 
children, and our children's children have finished 
life's appointed lessons and put the books away. 

"My work," declared the man whose career we are 
following, "is conducted with a view to stimulating and 
encouraging the teachers, and to making friends to the 
cause of public education among the people. * 

"My institutes last five days. The first four days are 
devoted mainly to the professional work of the teacher. 
Lectures are delivered on the different branches taught in 

265 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



the public schools; on school organization, discipline, methods 
of teaching, and methods of studying; on school law, and 
on the proper use of the books on the State list. Friday, 
the fifth day, is, in a special sense, 'People's Day.' The 
school committeemen and people generally are urged to 
attend, and the exercises are arranged with a view to 
interesting and instructing them in the work of public 
education. Besides various other exercises, a special address 
is made on that day, showing the necessity for education 
by taxation, and answering objections to it commonly heard 
among the people. ' ' 

Amid the arduous duties of his campaign work the 
necessity of a training school for teachers was not 
forgotten. In truth, this may be reckoned one of the 
means on which more and more he came to rely as 
promising most surely to secure the great end he had 
in view — universal education. Another problem now 
presented itself, namely, where should volunteers for 
this needful service be found in largest numbers, who, 
when trained, would make the best and most sympa- 
thetic instructors of the State 's children ? Wider and 
more varied experience and a deeper insight into the 
real sources of the mental and moral progress of the 
human race convinced him that his syllogism, which 
before had been — Education a State necessity, the 
teacher the chief means of education; therefore, the 
teacher a primary object of State concern, — might be 
carried logically further and made to read : Univer- 
sal education a necessity, woman the universal educa- 
tor; therefore, the education of woman the founda- 
tion of human progress. 

266 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



This advocacy of the more liberal education of 
woman is shown not only in his public addresses of 
that period, but in his written reports and recommen- 
dations to the State Superintendent of Public Instruc- 
tion. His report of June 30, 1890, contains this sig- 
nificant utterance relating to the establishment of a 
State Normal College : 

"To those who are still skeptical as to the wisdom of the 
training school movement, I would add one more reason 
why the school should be established and be liberally sup- 
ported by the State. Under our present system of higher 
and collegiate education, a white girl, unless her father 
is comparatively wealthy, cannot, as a rule, get the scholar- 
ship necessary to make her a first-rate teacher. Her brother 
can get it at the University and Colleges of the State, 
because in those institutions about three-fourths of his 
tuition is paid by the State and the churches. Up to the 
present time the State and our leading churches have 
adopted the suicidal policy of refusing to help educate 
white girls, except in the public schools. * * * 
The girls who would, if prepared, make the best teachers 
for the State's children, cannot even get the scholarship 
necessary to become teachers. One of the results of this is 
that two-thirds of our public school teachers are men, 
whereas two-thirds, at least, ought to be women. The State 
appropriates nothing for the training of white women, 
except the $4,000 for the institutes. It appropriates $8,000 
to the training of colored teachers and uses it in helping 
both sexes. In this way the State appropriates as much 
to train one negro woman as it does to train four white 
women, for there are about twice as many white as negro 
women in the State. By the help of the State, the churches 
and the philanthropists, a fair opportunity of getting an 
education is given to every white boy, negro boy and 

267 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



negro girl in North Carolina. Neither of the three has to 
pay more than one-fifth of the expenses of tuition; but the 
white girl must pay for every cent of hers. If the train- 
ing school shall be established for white girls, it will make 
education possible to thousands of girls who, under present 
conditions, must grow up in a state of ignorance and 
dependence worse than almost any other form of slavery. 
In addition, North Carolina will secure teachers better 
than she has ever had and who will bless her because she 
has blessed them. " 

His report thus emphasizes the justice and the wis- 
dom of State provision for the higher education of 
white women. An objection urged against the former 
bill for the establishment of a teachers ' training school 
was its co-educational feature. In 1891 Mr. Mclver 
and his friend and associate, Mr. Alderman, were 
again before the Legislature with a bill for the estab- 
lishment of the much-needed institution, but this time 
with the co-educational feature omitted. The bill 
passed almost without opposition, and thus, more than 
one hundred years after the University was chartered, 
the State established its College for women. Of this 
College the Board of Directors, consisting of one mem- 
ber from each Congressional district, elected Charles 
Duncan Mclver President. 

Now it was that this people's servant sought to build 
a people's college, not a thing of brick and stone, 
but an institution both worthy of and representative 
of the State that gave it birth. It should be an open 
door of opportunity to every worthy white girl, how- 
ever poor, however rich, within the borders of the 

268 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



Commonwealth — a means of fitting her for good and 
useful citizenship. A woman's college for North Caro- 
lina women it should be, characterized by sound learn- 
ing, liberal culture, earnest living and high thinking, 
but not by narrow specialization on the one hand, nor 
by a profitless striving for showy accomplishments 
on the other. The best that a State could give should 
be theirs; the best that educated women could give 
should be the State's. In this spirit was the North 
Carolina State Normal and Industrial College con- 
ceived, and in this spirit the Institution lived, grew and 
labored, presided over, inspired, guided and led, by 
one who freely gave to it all that man may give. 

It is doubtful if any other public institution was 
ever in so true a sense the product of the unselfish 
love and labor of one man. As to him in largest 
measure were owing its conception and creation, so to 
him were due its internal and external workings, the 
policy which characterized it, and the success which it 
achieved. And this was true not merely in the 
larger matters pertaining to its general management, 
but in all the details relating to its work and adminis- 
tration. The College plant and its equipment, the 
departments of instruction, the courses of study, the 
various organizations, the ideas for which the Institu- 
tion stood, the spirit it exemplified, the work it sought 
to accomplish, its relation to the public and the rela- 
tion of the public to the College — all these, in a very 
true sense, found in him their source and sustenance, 
and this, not in a spirit of formal oversight and official 

269 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



dictation, but through the living spirit of creative 
work and fellow service. 

And to what extent were his ideas realized 
and what fruit did his labors bear? Let him 
answer who can estimate the value to State and Nation 
of 3,000 women, who, in the short space of fourteen 
years, availed themselves of the advantages thus 
provided, and, with increased power of usefulness and 
enlightened zeal for service, passed on teaching 
lessons of right thinking and right living to more 
than 200,000 North Carolina children. Let him con- 
sider that the students came from every county in 
the State, that they represented every respectable 
calling, profession and industry and every form of 
honest labor in which the people of North Carolina 
were engaged ; that during the later years of his presi- 
dency there was not a county in the State in which 
representatives of the College were not to be found 
actively engaged in public service; and finally, that 
two-thirds of all the students enrolled and more than 
nine-tenths of all who graduated became teachers in 
North Carolina. A veritable fulfilling of his prophecy 
this — education made possible to thousands, and the 
State blessed in her teachers because she blessed them! 

The hand and heart and brain of Dr. Mclver were 
felt throughout the Institution, but most, perhaps, 
in what may be called the spirit of the College. In 
its life pulsed the vigor and strength, the patriotism 
and helpfulness of the man ; about it lingered the sun- 
shine of his optimism, and, infusing it all, were the 

270 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



dignity of serious purpose and the wholesome spirit 
of a true democracy. His conception of what the 
atmosphere of a college should be, he has given us in 
his biennial report of 1902. 

"The State/' he writes, "is always the gainer when its 
teachers can be trained in an atmosphere of equality which 
recognizes the worth of honest toil and faithful service 
regardless of class distinctions of all kinds. The distinguish- 
ing characteristic of Americanism is its theory, and I am 
glad to say its usual practice, of giving to every man, woman 
and child a fair chance in life. No board of directors and 
no faculty or college president can force this spirit. They 
can only adopt systems and policies that will tend to its 
development. 

"The worth of a strong college to a student is not, as 
some suppose, the mere fact that it gives the opportunity 
to a student to perform systematic literary tasks assigned 
by teachers, or that it gives opportunity to work in labora- 
tories and libraries. These are necessary and important, 
but the student's greatest advantage at college is the 
spiritual and mental atmosphere of the place. It is 
intangible, but you can feel it. It can not be measured, 
but its effect is everywhere manifest. 

"The love of truth for truth's sake; the belief in equality 
before the law; the belief in fair play and the willingness 
to applaud an honest victor in every contest, whether 
on the athletic field or in the class room or in social life; 
the feeling of common responsibility; the habit of tolerance 
towards those with whom one does not entirely agree; the 
giving up of small rights for the sake of greater rights 
that are essential; the recognition of authority and the 
dignified voluntary submission to it even when the reason 
for the policy adopted by the authority is not apparent; the 
spirit of overlooking the blunders of others and of helping 
those who are weak; the contempt for idlers and shirkers; 



271 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



the love of one's fellow-workers even though they be 
one's rivals; patience in toil; self-reliance; faith in human 
progress; confidence in right and belief in God — these are the 
characteristics of the atmosphere of a great and useful 
college. The young man or young woman who by associa- 
tion with faculty and fellow-students becomes imbued with 
these principles gains what never can be secured in the 
same degree in the best homes or small schools, or anywhere 
else except in a college." 

We would willingly dwell at length upon this 
phase of President Mclver's work, — on the intimate 
relations he sustained to the State 's College for women, 
and on the influences which through it he exerted 
upon public education. What this virile man accom- 
plished in supplying strength where of old existed 
finishing-school superficiality, how he inculcated ideas 
of service, how he made vital the conception of woman 
as a citizen, how he diffused abroad a spirit of whole- 
some democracy — and all this through constructive 
labors, preserving, strengthening and multiplying the 
influences that make for culture and true womanliness 
— this, did space permit, we would willingly empha- 
size. But the merest suggestion must here suffice, 
while to the future biographer is left the fuller chap- 
ters of this inspiring story. 

Important as are these services, they constitute but 
a part of the faithful labors which won for him State 
and National recognition as an educational leader and 
statesman. During his life-time, State appreciation 
may be said to have been summed up in the following 
sentences taken from an editorial appearing January 

272 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



24, 1904, in one of our leading North Carolina daily 
newspapers : 

"He has been a leading force in every movement looking 
for progress, educational or otherwise, in North Carolina. 
When the history of this decade is written, the story of 
the public service rendered his State by Charles Duncan 
Mclver will be one of the brightest pages in that splen- 
did volume of patriotic achievement. There is not a man 
in the State who has made himself felt so powerfully and 
so helpfully for progress." 

The national point of view may be taken as indicated 
in an article on Public School Leaders appearing in 
the July, 1905, magazine number of The Outlook. 
Eelative to the topic under consideration, it says : 

"In the Southern States there is no man better entitled 
to be called a champion of the public schools, and of the 
whole idea of popular education, than Charles Duncan 
Mclver, of North Carolina. * * * He is a man of 
intense earnestness, energy, insight and common sense. 
For the past twelve years his voice has been raised in 
behalf of popular education, not only in every county of 
his own State, but throughout the South and in great 
national assemblies. There is no abler speaker on this 
subject than Doctor Mclver. He has been the soul of the 
forward movement in his region, and he is now chairman 
of the Campaign Committee inaugurated by the Southern 
Education Board for the promotion of universal education. " 

These are but two voices among many hundreds 
which, separately during his life and in unison at the 
time of his death, acknowledged gratefully the debt of 
gratitude due this loyal leader for public service 

273 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



well and faithfully performed. Many of the edito- 
rials appearing at the time of his death are included in 
this volume and are to be found in that section of the 
work devoted to tributes from the press. In the nature 
of the case all could not be given since the writer 
had access only to the papers that came to the College 
reading-room. A glance at the names of these papers, 
however, will indicate how truly representative they 
are of the people Of North Carolina, and a reading of 
the editorials will reveal how uniformly they voice that 
people 's grief. With one accord they call him blessed. 
"Every newspaper in North Carolina," says the 
Richmond Times-Dispatch, made his death "the sub- 
ject of an editorial eulogy and they vied with one 
another in praising his character and his work. ' ' 

And what of the multitude of messages so patheti- 
cally expressive of personal loss, those which speak 
brokenly of lost counsellor, friend, brother, and 
parent ? — Hush, let us pass on ! There is a grief too 
deep for inspection, and this unveiling of the sorrow- 
ing human heart may not be done even in a memorial 
volume. 

The wide variety of his public service is indicated 
by the positions of honor and influence held by Doctor 
Mclver in the course of his busy life. In addition 
to the fourteen years of his college Presidency and 
the work already referred to as Conductor of State 
and County Institutes, Superintendent of Summer 
Normal Schools, and Chairman of the Committee that 
secured the establishment of the Normal and Indus- 



274 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



trial College, he was a participant in all the important 
work of the North Carolina Teachers' Assembly and 
its President in 1892 ; a worker in the Southern Edu- 
cational Association and its President in 1905, and an 
active member of the National Educational Associa- 
tion, serving at various times as Chairman of its 
Committee on Resolutions, member of its Committee 
on Education and Taxation, President of its Normal 
School Department, and member of its National Coun- 
cil. During the administration of Governor Elias 
Carr he served as proxy to represent the State stock 
in the North Carolina Railroad Company. He was 
one of the organizers of the Southern Education Board, 
the efficient Chairman of its Campaign Committee, and 
a leader in the movement for local taxation for public 
schools throughout North Carolina. To him is owing 
the organization of the Woman's Association for the 
Betterment of Public Schools. He was a member of 
the State Literary and Historical Association and 
Vice-President of the State Library Association. A 
loyal son of his Alma Mater, the University of North 
Carolina, he served it officially as trustee and mem- 
ber of its Executive Committee, and liberally and 
heartily supported every movement for the promotion 
of its welfare. In recognition of his public service 
the University conferred on him the honorary degrees 
of Doctor of Letters and Doctor of Laws. In present- 
ing him for the latter degree, Doctor Charles Alphonso 
Smith, Dean of the graduate department, said : 



275 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



"I have the honor to present * for the degree 

of Doctor of Laws * Charles Duncan Mdver, Presi- 

dent of the North Carolina State Normal and Industrial 
College for Women. As State Institute Conductor from 1889 
to 1892, he first showed himself peculiarly fitted to be a 
moulder of educational thought. A firm believer in the 
education of all the people, he has devoted his rare powers 
of organization and appeal more especially to the education 
of women. 'No State,' he declares, ' which will educate its 
mothers need have any fear about future illiteracy.' That 
this sentiment has at last found recognition not only in the 
educational creed, but also in the educational policy of North 
Carolina, is due more to Doctor Mclver than to any other 
one man." 

To add to this already long list the various local 
organizations, city and county, to which he belonged, 
such, for example, as the Young Men's Business 
Association, the Industrial and Immigration Asso- 
ciation, the Chamber of Commerce, the Guilford 
County Board of School Improvement, and the North 
Carolina Reunion Association — to mention all such 
organizations and to specify the committees on which 
he served would be to convert the latter part of this 
sketch largely into a catalogue of society and com- 
mittee names. Interpreted aright there is a profound 
significance in this long array of social, industrial, 
educational, business, literary and historical associa- 
tions, since it indicates not only a healthful interest 
in national, state and local affairs, but a wide and 
intimate familiarity with the agencies of progress and 
a whole-souled enlistment of his energies in all move- 
ments that promised to promote the public good. 

276 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



It was as a public speaker and orator, perhaps, that 
Doctor Mclver was most widely known to the general 
public both in his own State and beyond its borders. 
The demands thus made upon him were frequent and 
at times almost continuous. It was his custom to carry 
with him a pocket calendar on which were noted the 
dates of promised addresses. When a new appoint- 
ment was sought, he consulted his calendar, named the 
nearest unfilled date, and thus, by an unending pro- 
cess, added to what he called his ' ' incidental and vaca- 
tion work." Appointments were often made several 
months in advance and it was not unusual for him 
to have every available date filled for six weeks in 
succession. The acceptance of these invitations was 
determined by the opportunity for service afforded 
by the particular town, city or community from which 
came the call. If any doubt arose, the chances were 
nearly always in favor of the smaller and weaker 
community, and the message was carried to the 
few hundreds that gathered at the cross-roads store 
or country church rather than to the larger number 
who assembled in opera house or city hall. The mes- 
sage, too, had reference to the needs and special con- 
ditions of time and place, and thus constituted a sow- 
ing of good seed in suitable soil, for it is safe to say 
that Charles D. Mclver never addressed an audience 
without having a distinct end in view and that end 
the provoking to good works. There are few places 
in North Carolina where his voice has not been raised 
in behalf of some public measure. Large audiences, 

277 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



too, in great cities far removed from his native State, 
greeted this educational leader, and from his lips 
heard the inspiring story of our educational progress. 
Thus he bore our message of hopefulness and good 
will to more than one-half the States in the Union. 

His favorite topics were, of course, those that 
related to education, but as this is among the most 
comprehensive of subjects, his addresses may be said 
to have included a wide range of themes. He was 
not a man to deal in generalities, but with a particular 
purpose in view, selected a timely theme, appropriate 
to a given audience, and sought by a clear and force- 
ful presentation of facts to accomplish a definite 
result. He would, for example, address a body of 
lawmakers on the duty of the State to make liberal 
provision for the education of its citizens — the citizens 
themselves on the advantages of local taxation for 
public schools. Or, the "Teacher as a Citizen" might 
perhaps be the subject of a talk to teachers, and when 
urged to repeat it before a general audience, he would 
respond with an address on "The Citizen as a 
Teacher." Although an interested student of our 
past history, he seldom drew upon its storehouse for 
the material of his public discourses, but preferred 
to live in the present and in it find the chief objects 
of public concern. With him the past was our herit- 
age, the present our opportunity, and the future, 
a result of the labors of today. To the work at hand 
he therefore addressed himself, and though he some- 
times saw visions, he never dreamed dreams. All 

278 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEB 



his speeches, whether intended primarily for men or 
women, and whether addressed to students, teachers, 
civic organizations or to the general public, had this 
one thing in common — they all, without exception, 
emphasized the duty of public and community service. 

While relying chiefly upon the power of the spoken 
word as an agency in conveying his message to man- 
kind, he was not unmindful of the influence of the 
pen. Amid the duties of official life and the numer- 
ous outside calls made upon him, he found time to 
write much that is of more than passing value. His 
newspaper and magazine articles, his educational cam- 
paign documents and official reports, and his speeches, 
revised and prepared for publication, these, if gath- 
ered together, would doubtless comprise several goodly 
volumes, and would constitute a valuable addition to 
the literature relating to educational and civic ideals. 
His writings, like his speeches, are clear and force- 
ful discussions of topics pertaining to education and 
public service. 

The life here sketched would seem to leave little 
opportunity for the enjoyment of the quieter pleasures 
of home, and the leisure and happiness which home 
suggests. But the life here sketched is but the outer 
and visible workings of an inner life which found its 
center in the home and family. In Miss Lula V. Mar- 
tin, of Winston, North Carolina, Charles D. Mclver 
found a life companion whose Christian graces of 
character and powers of intellectual sympathy ren- 



279 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVER 



dered her the truest encourager of his efforts and the 
wisest judge and rewarder of his success. 

She it was who first directed his attention to the 
inadequate facilities for woman's education in North 
Carolina and to the total neglect on the part of the 
State to provide for its daughters what it had long 
since wisely provided for its sons. Under her influence, 
at a teachers' institute held in Winston, in the sum- 
mer of 1885, he made his first public speech in behalf 
of the higher education of women. Together they 
formulated the plan which was to right the wrong 
so long existing; together — for she, too, was engaged 
with him in institute work — they presented that plan 
to the people of North Carolina; and together they 
labored for the accomplishment of their ideal now so 
happily embodied in the State Normal and Industrial 
College. 

The marriage of these educational co-workers took 
place in 1885. Four children, a son and three daugh- 
ters, added happiness to their union. A simple home 
was his, blessed by generous affection and pervaded 
by an atmosphere of hospitality and genial courtesy — 
a home where culture and quiet refinement were justly 
esteemed and where trust in God and faith in human- 
ity remained unquestioned and sincere. His religious 
faith was that of the Scotch Covenanters, adhered to 
in its simplicity, but lived in the spirit of Christian 
rather than of sect. He amassed no wealth, yet none 
could call him poor, for love and confidence were his 
in fullest measure and he left to his family and to 

280 



CHARLES DUNCAN McIVEE 



the people whom he loved and served a priceless legacy 
of good works, a heritage to all that survive him and 
to thousands yet unborn. 

Twenty-five years have elapsed since, diploma in 
hand, Charles D. Mclver passed from college halls 
into the larger school of life. And life itself grew 
richer with his coming, and so remains and will remain 
though he that led us has entered into rest. He 
accomplished much and in the doing of it taught us to 
demand of him and of ourselves and of all men — 
more. This, we suspect, is as he would have it, for 
his message to his fellow man rings clear and true: 
Live more abundantly through more abundant service, 
striving hopefully for the larger things of life. 



281 



INDEX 



A NOBLE CAREER ENDED— Page 

Press Correspondence by Andrew Joyner 7 

Daily Industrial News 9 

Greensboro Record 12 

Greensboro Telegram 14 

A NOBLE REQUIEM — 

Daily Industrial News 16 

Eulogy by Hon. William Jennings Bryan 17 

Greensboro Record 27 

Greensboro Patriot 28 

LAID TO REST — 

Raleigh News and Observer 30 

Greensboro Telegram 31 

Daily Industrial News 31 

Funeral Sermon by L. W. Crawford, D. D 33 

PRESS TRIBUTES — 

Greensboro Telegram 43 

Weekly Tar Heel 44 

Raleigh News and Observer 44 

Charlotte Observer 45 

Charlotte News 47 

Wilmington Messenger 47 

New Bern Journal 48 

N. C. Journal of Education 50 

Asheville Citizen 52 

Durham Sun 54 

Charity and Children 54 

Kinston Free Press 55 

Webster's Weekly 56 

Lexington Dispatch 57 

Charlotte Chronicle 57 

Winston Sentinel 58 

Mocksville Courier 59 

Raleigh Times 59 

North Carolina Baptist 60 

Salisbury Post 61 

Concord Tribune 61 

Biblical Recorder 62 

Everything 62 

283 



INDEX 

PRESS TRIBUTES — Continued— Page 

Winston- Salem Journal 63 

Duplin Journal 65 

Daily Reflector 66 

Orphan's Friend and Masonic Journal 66 

Statesville Landmark 67 

Maxton Blade 69 

Christian Sun 69 

Raleigh Christian Advocate 71 

Chapel Hill News 72 

Union Republican 72 

Trinity Chronicle 72 

Warrenton Record 74 

Scottish Chief 74 

Elm City Mirror 74 

Durham Recorder 75 

Progressive Farmer 76 

Roxboro Courier 76 

Henderson Gold Leaf 77 

The Caucasian 77 

Tarboro Southerner '. 78 

Smithfield Herald 78 

Newton Enterprise 78 

Catawba County News 79 

Scotland Neck Commonwealth 79 

Mooresville Enterprise 80 

Gastonia News 81 

Elkin Enterprise 81 

Presbyterian Standard 82 

Reidsville Review 82 

Hertford Herald 83 

Waynesville Courier 83 

News Reporter 84 

Monroe Journal 85 

Polk County News 86 

Daily Industrial News 86 

Deaf Carolinian 89 

South Atlantic Quarterly 90 

University Magazine 96 

Wake Forest Student 99 

Guilford Collegian 99 

Religious Herald, Richmond 103 

Richmond Times-Dispatch 106 

Columbia State 109 

Baltimore Sun 110 

Southern Workman Ill 

Educational Exchange, Alabama 113 

Louisiana School Review 113 

284 



INDEX 

PRESS TRIBUTES — Continued — Page 

The Commoner, Nebraska 115 

New York Times 116 

Little Rock Gazette 118 

Review of Reviews 119 

The Outlook 122 

World's Work 124 

MEMORIALS and MEMORIAL EXERCISES — 

Normal College Memorial Exercises. Program . . 127 

Impressive Exercises, Daily Record 128 

Introductory Remarks, Acting President Julius I. Foust. . . 129 

Invocation, Rev. Henry W. Battle 130 

Address, Dr. Edwin A. Alderman 132 

Dr. George T. Winston 148 

Dr. F. P. Venable 149 

Dr. James E. Brooks 151 

Miss Mary K. Applewhite 154 

Hon. J. Y. Joyner 157 

Statue in Bronze, Governor's Proclamation 163 

Mclver Loan and Scholarship Fund 164 

Mclver Memorial Day 166 

Public School Memorial Exercises. Program 167 

University of North Carolina 168 

Davidson College 169 

Wake Forest College 171 

Trinity College 171 

Guilford College 172 

Whitsett Institute 173 

Oak Ridge Institute 174 

Oxford Seminary 174 

Peace Institute 176 

Duplin County Alumnae 177 

University Alumni, Wake County Association 178 

Guilford County Association 179 

Salisbury Graded Schools 179 

Transylvania County Teachers 180 

Graham Graded School 180 

Wake County Teachers' Association 181 

RESOLUTIONS — 

Normal College Directors 182 

Faculty 184 

Adelphian Society 185 

Cornelian Society 186 

Young Woman's Christian Association. . . . 188 

Senior Class 188 

Junior Class 189 

Sophomore Class 190 

285 



INDEX 

RESOLUTIONS — Continued — Page 

Henderson Graded Schools and Citizens 190 

Former Students of Hickory 191 

State Primary Teachers' Association 192 

University Dialectic Society 194 

Greensboro Chamber of Commerce 194 

Masonic Lodge, Winston 195 

A. and M. College for Colored Race 197 

Conference for Education in South 198 

Committee on Pastorate, Presbyterian Church 199 

Daughters of Confederacy, Guilford Chapter 201 

North Carolina Library Association 202 

Greensboro Public Library 203 

Daughters of American Revolution, Waynesville 203 

Buncombe County Alumnae Association 204 

Woman's Club, Goldsboro 205 

Junior Order, Greensboro Council 206 

Wilson County Alumnae 207 

Maxton Graded Schools 208 

Manndale Institute 209 

McDowell County Board of Education 210 

Tryon School 211 

N. C. Children's Home Society 212 

PERSONAL TRIBUTES — 

J. D. Murphy 214 

Josephus Daniels 219 

Gov. R. B. Glenn, Message to General Assembly 235 

Dr. C. Alphonso Smith 236 

Col. Paul B. Means 237 

R. D. W. Connor 242 

Mary Faison De Vane 244 

B. W. Spillman 247 

Rev. Millard A. Jenkins 248 

Dr. J. B. Carlyle 251 

Verse, R. D. Douglas 253 

"G.", Trinity Archive 254 

"M. J.", Raleigh News and Observer 255 

W. C. Smith 255 

Helen C. Hicks 256 

Biographical Sketch, by W. C. Smith 258 



286 



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